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rHE LIFE AND STRANGE SURPRISING 
ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON 
CRUSOE OF YORK 
MARINER 

AS RELATED BY HIMSELF 
BY ^ 

DANIEL DEFOE 

REPRINTED FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF 1719 


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

EDWARD EVERETT HALE 

V, I 

I 

ILLUSTRATED BY C. E. BROCK AND D. L. MUNRO 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 
1902 








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THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Cones Received 

OCT. 0 1901 

COFVRIGHT ENTRY 

QU.$. >°lof 

CLASS CO XXc. No. 

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COPY B. 


Copyright, 1901, 

By D. C. Heath & Co. 


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NORWOOD. MASS., U.S.A. 


INTRODUCTION 


There are so many editions of “Robinson Crusoe” that no one 
knows how many editions there are. The only other English 
romance which, in our time, has been printed so often is “ Uncle 
Tom’s Cabin.” 

It is a little interesting, therefore, for an American boy or girl to 
remember that the two stories which have been most widely cir- 
culated in the English language are “Robinson Crusoe,” which is the 
life of a man who sailed out on a voyage to the Guinea Coast for 
slaves which he was going to divide among his fellow plunderers, — 
a man whom we should now call a slave trader, — and second, the 
life of Uncle Tom, who was supposed to live nearly two hundred 
years after Robinson Crusoe. The life of this American slave, as 
written by Mrs. Stowe, probably did more than any other book, 
except the Bible, to break down the system of slavery. Daniel 
Defoe, who was the author of “Robinson Crusoe,” wrote it when 
he was fifty-one years old. Defoe was a political writer and 
worker in the reigns of William and Mary and Queen Anne. 
People who like to find fault say he was a liar and a cheat ; but 
the general opinion, which is certainly mine, is, that he was a con- 
scientious, liberal politician. He lived in a very smoky, dirty, 
nasty, dusty, uninteresting period, in which conscientious men were 
trying to wash out the stains with which the Stuart kings had de- 
filed the government of England. And he was not afraid to do 
work which some dainty people would have called dirty work, but 
in the midst of this work, with his pen he wrought out books which 
have been of the first value to the world. Benjamin Franklin, who 
has helped the world a great deal and done much to bring in the 
kingdom of heaven, says distinctly that the two books which have 
done him the most good, were Defoe’s “Essay upon Projects” 


VI 


Introduction 


and Cotton Mather’s “ Essays to do Good.” Few English books 
have ever wrought more good on the conscience and in the lives 
of people who read them than “ Robinson Crusoe.” 

One of Defoe’s sons came to North Carolina. It is very likely 
that this preface will be read by some boy in America who does 
not know that he is a grandson of the great-grandson of the author 
of “ Robinson Crusoe.” The Foe, or Defoe, family have not left 
many traces in print. I have, however, sometimes thought that 
Defoe visited his son in North Carolina before he wrote “Robinson 
Crusoe.” This is certain, that the book which is called the second 
“Robinson Crusoe,” “Colonel Jack,” which was written by him in 
the year 1722, is an account of an English boy who was sold as an 
apprentice, to work out his salvation on the northern bank of the 
Potomac River, very near the place where the city of Washington 
stands to-day. It is very curious that Defoe should have written 
the best history which we have of the system of white slavery by 
which Virginia was very largely peopled. 

It is a very great pity that most girls and boys are taught in 
ridiculous school books that Juan Fernandez, on the west coast of 
South America, was Robinson Crusoe’s island. The title-page of 
the book in its original edition calls it “The Life and Strange Sur-| 
prising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, who^; 
lived eight and twenty years all alone in an uninhabited island on 
the coast of America, near the mouth of the great River Oroo-| 
noque ; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, wherein all the men 
perished but himself. With an account how he was at last as 
strangely delivered by Pirates.” 

Any boy who reads the book knows that Robinson Crusoe never 
went around Cape Horn and never saw the island of Juan Fernan- 
dez. 

It is a little curious that the English government in its late con-; 
test with the republic of Venezuela tried to prove that they had a 
very early claim to the mouth of the Orinoco River. I tried to 
make them say that this claim was founded on the residence there 
for twenty-eight years, between 1659 and 1687, of an English mari- 
I ner named Robinson Crusoe, who called himself the “English 


Introduction 


Vll 


Governor,” but they never put in this as part of their claim. 
Perhaps it occurred to Lord Salisbury that when Robinson Crusoe 
went away from this island, he left it under the care of the Spanish 
government, and the Spanish ruled it at the last moment of the 
history. The early editions of “ Robinson Crusoe ” have the map 
i of the mouth of the Orinoco, which shows the great island of Trini- 
dad of which he speaks on page 48. And recent travellers have 
landed on the island which they think Defoe had in mind. I do 
not believe Defoe went into any such accuracy of detail. 

I am well aware that no boy will want to read a long preface to 
this book. I am afraid some boys will not read the preface at all ; 
but I should like to have those boys who do read this preface say 
to their sisters that they had better read “ Robinson Crusoe.” Say 
that a person who is thoroughly and well acquainted with “ Robinson 
; Crusoe ” is thoroughly and well acquainted with the best narrative 
which has ever been written in the English language. There are 
no writings which approach, in simplicity, the language of Defoe’s 
narratives, excepting the parables and other narratives in the four 
gospels. I have heard it said that in conversation with any woman, 
if that conversation is two or three times renewed, you can tell 
whether she has read “Robinson Crusoe ” or not, by her skill in 
expressing herself well, or by her failure to do so. 

Readers who are curious in English history must not fail to 
observe that Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on his island the 
30th of September, 1659. It was in that month that the English 
j Commonwealth ended, and Richard Cromwell left the palace at 
. Whitehall. Robinson lived in this island home for twenty-eight 
years. These twenty-eight years covered the exact period of 
the second Stuart reign in England. Robinson Crusoe returned to 

[ j England in June, 1687 ; the Convention Parliament, which estab- 
i lished William III., met in London at the same time. All this could 
I not be an accidental coincidence. Defoe must have meant that the 
“true-born Englishman” could not live in England during the 

( years while the Stuarts reigned. Robinson Crusoe was a ruler 
himself on his own island, and was never the subject of Charles II. 
or James II. He was not a “man without a country,” because he 


Vlll 


Introduction 


had a little country of his own ; but he was a man in a country 
where there was no king but himself. 

The storm described when he was shipwrecked off Yarmouth 
was the storm in which Thomas Shepard, the first minister of 
Cambridge in Massachusetts, was wrecked at the place described. 
I have no doubt but that Defoe obtained his description of the 
storm from one of Shepard’s companions. 


EDWARD E. HALE. 


CONTENTS 


PACE 

Introduction 

List of Illustrations ix 

Preface to the Original Edition xiii 

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe . . . . i 

Note 367 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

“ I found a large tortoise ” Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Robinson Crusoe (facsimile of frontispiece of the first edition) . . xi 

Facsimile of the title-page of the first edition xii 

“ ‘ You’re but a fresh-water sailor ’ ” 16 

“ ‘ If you come near the boat, I’ll shoot ’” 25 

“They came to make a secret proposal ” 45 

“ I was now landed ” 55 

“ I tied four of them together ” 59 

“ When I waked it was broad day ” 75 

“ Grinding my tools ” io 7 

“ On the side of that delicious vale ” 1 1 7 

“Broiled it on the coals” 122 

“ An infinite number of fowls ” . . . . . • • • I 3 ^ 

“ I resolved to dig ” 151 

» 


ix 


X 


List of Illustrations 


“ I made me a suit of clothes ” 

“ I fell on my knees ”... 

“ The print of a man’s naked foot ” 

“ I came to measure the mark ” 

“ A place where there had been a fire ” 
“ A light of some fire ” . 

“ I knocked him down ” 

“ Dancing round the fire ” 

“ This Friday admired very much ” 

“ Entered into a long discussion ” . 

“ Inch by inch ” 

“ ‘ What are ye, gentlemen ? ’ ” 

" Fired a volley ” . 

“ I showed them the new captain ” 

“ He pulls out an old pouch ” 

“ With a growling kind of noise ” . 


PAGE t 

. 161 1 

181 
183 | 

189 I 
206 1 
217 1 
241 1 


249 

2 55 



303 

315 

330 { 


344 

359 




FACSIMILE OF THE FRONTISPIECE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 


XI 



THE 

LIFE 

aui» 

Strange Surprizing 

ADVENTURES 

OR 

ROBINSON CRUSOE, 

Of TORN. Mariner: 

Who lived Eight and Twenty Tears, 
all alone in an uninhabited Ifland on the 
Coaft of A m is i c a, near the Mouth of 
the Great River ofOnooNoaui* 

Having been call: on Shore by Shipwreck, where- 
in all the Men. periled but himfelk 
WITH 

An Account how he "was at lafl: as (Irangely deli- 
VPr'dbyPYRATjES, 


Written by_HiwJelf. 


LONDON; 

Printed fol W. T a tl o r a t the Shipi&Eater-NfleY* 
Ecuv MDCCX1X. 


FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION. 



THE 


PREFACE 

If ever the Story of any private Man’s Adventures in the World 
were worth making Publick, and were acceptable when Publifh’d, 
the Editor of this Account thinks this will be fo. 

The Wonders of this Man’s Life exceed all that (he thinks) is 
to be found extant ; the Life of one Man being fcarce capable 
of a greater Variety. 

The Story is told with Modefty, with Serioufnefs, and with a 
religious Application of Events to the Ufes to which wife Men 
always apply them (viz.) to the Inftruction of others by this 
Example, and to juftify and honour the Wifdom of Providence 
in all the Variety of our Circumftances, let them happen how 
they will. 

The Editor believes the thing to be a juft Hiftory of Fact ; 
neither is there any Appearance of Fiction in it : And however 
thinks, becaufe all fuch things are difpatch’d, that the Improve- 
ment of it, as well to the Diverfion, as to the Inftruction of the 
Reader, will be the fame ; and as fuch, he thinks, without farther 
Compliment to the World, he does them a great Service in the 
Publication. 


xin 


































. I 









































The Life and Adventures of 
Robinson Crusoe 

I. Crusoe’s family history — He rejects his 
parents’ counsel — And runs away to 
sea — His first voyage arid shipwreck. 

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a 
; good family, though not of that country, my father being 
a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull : he got a 
good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, 
lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my 
mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very 
good family in that country, and from whom I was called 
Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of 
words in England, we are now called, nay, we call our- 
selves, and write our name Crusoe, and so my companions 
i always called me. 

I had two elder brothers, one of which was lieutenant- 
colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly 
commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was 
j killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards : 

| what became of my second brother I never knew, any 
I more than my father or mother did know what was become 
i of me. 

Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any 
l trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling 
| thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given 


2 


The Life and Adventures of 


me a competent share of learning, as far as house educa- 
tion and a country free school generally goes, and designed 
me for the law ; but I would be satisfied with nothing but 
going to sea, and my inclination to this led me so strongly 
against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and 
against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother 
and other friends, that there seemed to be something 
fatal in that propension of nature tending directly to the 
life of misery which was to befall me. 

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and 
excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. 
He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was 
confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with 
me upon the subject. He asked me what reasons more 
than a mere wandering inclination I had for leaving my 
father’s house and my native country, where I might be 
well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune 
by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. 
He told me it was for men of desperate fortunes on one 
hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who 
went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and 
make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out 
of the common road ; that these things were all either too 
far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the 
middle state, or what might be called the upper station 
of low life, which he had found by long experience was 
the best state in the world, the most suited to human 
happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the 
labor and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, 
and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, 
and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me 
I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one 
thing; namely, that this was the state of life which all 
other people envied ; that kings have frequently lamented 


Robinson Crusoe 


3 


the miserable consequences of being born to great things, 
and wish they had been placed in the middle of the two 
extremes, between the mean and the great ; that the wise 
man gave his testimony to this as the just standard of true 
felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. 

He bid me observe it, and I should always find, that the 
calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower 
part of mankind ; but that the middle station had the 
fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissi- 
tudes as the higher or lower part of mankind ; nay, they 
were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses 
either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious 
living, luxury, and extravagancies on one hand, or by hard 
labor, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet 
on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by 
the natural consequences of their way of living ; that the 
middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues 
and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were 
the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, 
moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diver- 
sions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attend- 
ing the middle station of life; that this way men went 
silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably 
out of it, not embarrassed with the labors of the hands 
or of the head, not sold to the life of slavery for daily 
bread, or harassed with perplexed circumstances, which 
rob the soul of peace and the body of rest ; not enraged 
with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition 
for great things ; but in easy circumstances sliding gently 
through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of 
living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, 
and learning by every day’s experience to know it more 
sensibly. 

After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most 


4 


The Life and Adventures of 


affectionate manner, not to play the young man, not to 
precipitate myself into miseries which nature and the 
station of life I was born in seemed to have provided 
against ; that I was under no necessity of seeking my 
bread ; that he would do well for me, and endeavor to 
enter me fairly into the station of life which he had been 
just recommending to me; and that if I was not very 
easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or 
fault that must hinder it, and that he should have nothing 
to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning 
me against measures which he knew would be to my 
hurt. In a word, that as he would do very kind things 
for me if I would stay and settle at home, as he directed, 
so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes, as 
to give me any encouragement to go away. And, to close 
all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, 
to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep 
him from going into the Low Country wars, but could 
not prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into 
the army, where he was killed ; and though, he said, he 
would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to 
say to me that, if I did take this foolish step, God would 
not bless me, and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect 
upon having neglected his counsel when there might be 
none to assist in my recovery. 

I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly 
prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to 
be so himself, I say I observed the tears run down his face 
very plentifully, and especially when he spoke of my 
brother who was killed ; and that when he spoke of my 
having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so 
moved that he broke off the discourse, and told me his heart 
was so full he could say no more to me. 

I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as indeed 


Robinson Crusoe 


5 


who could be otherwise ? and I resolved not to think of 
going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to 
my father’s desire. But, alas ! a few days wore it all off ; 
and, in short, to prevent any of my father’s further impor- 
tunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away 
from him. However, I did not act so hastily neither as my 
first heat of resolution prompted ; but I took my mother, 
at a time when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordi- 
nary, and told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent 
upon seeing the world, that I should never settle to any- 
thing with resolution enough to go through with it, and my 
father had better give me his consent than force me to go 
without it; that I was now eighteen years old, which was 
too late to go apprentice to a trade, or clerk to an attorney ; 
that I was sure if I did, I should never serve out my time, 
and I should certainly run away from my master before 
my time was out, and go to sea ; and if she would speak 
to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came 
home again and did not like it, I would go no more, and I 
would promise by a double diligence to recover that time 
I had lost. 

This put my mother into a great passion. She told me 
she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father 
upon any such subject ; that he knew too well what was 
my interest to give his consent to any such thing so much 
for my hurt, and that she wondered how I could think of 
any such thing, after such a discourse as I had had with 
my father, and such kind and tender expressions as she 
knew my father had used to me ; and that, in short, if I 
would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I 
might depend I should never have their consent to it. 
That, for her part, she would not have so much hand in my 
destruction ; and I should never have it to say that my 
mother was willing when my father was not. 


6 


The Life and Adventures of 


Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet, 
as I have heard afterwards, she reported all the discourse 
to him, and that my father, after showing a great concern 
at it, said to her with a sigh, “ That boy might be happy 
if he would stay at home ; but if he goes abroad he will 
be the miserablest wretch that was ever born. I can give 
no consent to it.” 

It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, 
though in the meantime I continued obstinately deaf to all 
proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostu- 
lating with my father and mother about their being so posi- 
tively determined against what they knew my inclinations 
prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where I went 
casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement 
that time ; but, I say, being there, and one of my compan- 
ions being going by sea to London in his father’s ship and 
prompting me to go with them, with the common allurement 
of seafaring men ; namely, that it should cost me nothing 
for my passage, I consulted neither father nor mother 
any more, nor so much as sent them word of it ; but leav- 
ing them to hear of it as they might, without asking God’s 
blessing, or my father’s ; without any consideration of cir- 
cumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, 
on the ist of September, 1661, I went on board a ship bound 
for London. Never any young adventurer’s misfortunes, 
I believe, began sooner, or continued longer than mine. The 
ship was no sooner gotten out of the Humber but the wind 
began to blow, and the waves to rise in a most frightful 
manner; and, as I had never been at sea before, I was 
most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified in my mind. 
I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and 
how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven 
for my wicked leaving my father’s house, and abandoning 
my duty ; all the good counsel of my parents, my father’s 


Robinson Crusoe 


7 


tears and my mother’s entreaties, came now fresh into my 
mind ; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the 
pitch of hardness to which it has been since, reproached 
me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my 
duty to God and my father. 

All this while the storm increased, and the sea, which I 
had never been upon before, went very high, though noth- 
ing like what I have seen many times since ; no, nor like 
what I saw a few days after. But it was enough to affect 
me then, who was but a young sailor and had never known 
anything of the matter. I expected every wave would 
have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell 
down, as I thought, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we 
should never rise more ; and in this agony of mind I made 
many vows and resolutions, that if it would please God 
here to spare my life this one voyage, if ever I got once 
my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to 
my father, and never set it into a ship again while I liv r ed ; 
that I would take his advice, and never run myself into 
such miseries as these any more. Now I saw plainly the 
goodness of his observations about the middle station of 
life ; how easy, how comfortable he had lived all his days, 
and never had been exposed to tempests at sea, or troubles 
on shore ; and I resolved that I would, like a true repent- 
ing prodigal, go home to my father. 

These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while 
the storm continued, and indeed some time after ; but the 
next day the wind was abated and the sea calmer, and I 
began to be a little inured to it. However, I was very 
grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still ; but 
towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite 
over, and a charming fine evening followed ; the sun went 
down perfectly clear, and rose so the next morning ; and 
having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining 


8 The Life and Adventures of 

upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful 
that ever I saw. 

I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea- 
sick but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea 
that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could 
be so calm and so pleasant in so little time after. And 
now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my com- 
panion, who had indeed enticed me away, comes to me, — 
“Well, Bob,” says he, clapping me on the shoulder, “how 
do you do after it ? I warrant you were frighted, wa’n’t 
you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?” — “A 
capful, d’you call it ? ” said I ; “ ’twas a terrible storm.” 

— “A storm, you fool you,” replies he, “ do you call that 
a storm ? Why, it was nothing at all ! Give us but a good 
ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a squall 
of wind as that. But you’re but a fresh-water sailor, Bob. 
Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we’ll forget all that. 
D’ye see what charming weather ’tis now ? ” To make short 
this sad part of my story, we went the old way of all sail- 
ors. The punch was made, and I was made drunk with it. 
And in that one night’s wickedness I drowned all my 
repentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, and 
all my resolutions for my future. In a word, as the sea 
was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calm- 
ness by the abatement of that storm, so — the hurry of my 
thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of being 
swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current 
of my former desires returned — I entirely forgot the vows 
and promises that I made in my distress. I found, indeed, 
some intervals of reflection, and the serious thoughts did, 
as it were, endeavor to return again sometimes; but I 
shook them off, and roused myself from them as it were 
from a distemper, and applying myself to drink and 
company, soon mastered the return of those fits — for so I 


Robinson Crusoe 


9 


called them — and I had in five or six days got as com- 
plete a victory over conscience as any young fellow, that 
resolved not to be troubled with it, could desire. But I was 
to have another trial for it still ; and Providence, as in such 
cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely with- 
out excuse. For if I would not take this for a deliverance, 
the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hard- 
ened wretch among us would confess both the danger and 
the mercy. 

The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yar- 
mouth Roads ; the wind having been contrary and the 
weather calm, we had made but little way since the storm. 
Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, and here we 
lay, the wind continuing contrary — namely, at southwest 
— for seven or eight days, during which time a great many 
ships from Newcastle came into the same roads, as the 
common harbor where the ships might wait for a wind 
for the river. 

We had not, however, rid here so long, but should have 
tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh ; 
and after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard. 
However, the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor, 
the anchorage good, and our ground-tackle very strong, 
our men were unconcerned, and not in- the least apprehen- 
sive of danger, but spent the time in rest and mirth, after 
the manner of the sea ; but the eighth day, in the morning, 
the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to strike 
our top-masts, and make everything snug and close, that 
the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea 
went very high indeed, and our ship rid forecastle in, 
shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our 
anchor had come home, upon which our master ordered out 
the sheet-anchor ; so that we rode with two anchors ahead, 
and the cables veered out to the better end. 


IO 


The Life and Adventures of 


By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed, and now I 


began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the 
seamen themselves. The master, though vigilant in the 
business of preserving the ship, yet, as he went in and out 
of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say 
several times, “ Lord, be merciful to us ; we shall be all 
lost, we shall be all undone,” and the like. During these 
first hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was 
in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper. I could 
ill reassume the first penitence, which I had so apparently 
trampled upon and hardened myself against. I thought 
the bitterness of death had been past, and that this would 
be nothing, too, like the first. But when the master him- 
self came by me, as I said just now, and said we should be 
all lost, I was dreadfully frighted. I got up out of my 
cabin and looked out ; but such a dismal sight I never saw. 
The sea went mountains high, and broke upon us every 
three or four minutes. When I could look about, I could 
see nothing but distress round us. Two ships that rid 
near us we found had cut their masts by the board, being 
deep laden ; and our men cried out that a ship which rid 
about a mile ahead of us was foundered. Two more ships 
being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads 
to sea at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing. 
The light ships fared the best, as not so much laboring 
in the sea ; but two or three of them drove and came close 
by us, running away with only their sprit-sail out before 
the wind. 

Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the 
master of our ship to let them cut away the foremast, which 
he was very unwilling to ; but the boatswain protesting to 
him that if he did not the ship would founder, he con- 
sented ; and when they had cut away the foremast, the 
main-mast stood so loose and shook the ship so much, they 




Robinson Crusoe 


1 1 

were obliged to cut her away also, and make a clear 
deck. 

Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all 
this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in 
such a fright before at but a little. But if I can express 
at this distance the thoughts I had about me at that time, 
I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my 
former convictions, and the having returned from them to 
the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at 
death itself ; and these, added to the terror of the storm, 
put me into such a condition that I can by no words 
describe it. But the worst was not come yet. The storm 
continued with such fury, that the seamen themselves 
acknowledged they had never known a worse. We had 
a good ship ; but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the 
sea, that the seamen every now and then cried out she 
would founder. It was my advantage in one respect that 
I did not know what they meant by founder till I inquired. 
However, the storm was so violent, that I saw what is not 
often seen — the master, the boatswain, and some others 
more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and expecting 
every moment when the ship would go to the bottom. In 
the middle of the night, and under all the rest of our dis- 
tresses, one of the men that had been down on purpose to 
see, cried out we had sprung a leak ; another said there 
was four foot water in the hold. 

Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very 
word my heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell 
backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat, into the 
cabin. However, the men roused me, and told me that I 
that was able to do nothing before was as well able to 
pump as another, at which I stirred up and went to the 
pump, and worked very heartily. While this was doing, 
the master, seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride 


12 


The Life and Adventures of 


out the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to sea, 
and would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal 
of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant, was 
so surprised, that I thought the ship had broke, or some 
dreadful thing had happened. In a word, I was so sur- 
prised, that I fell down in a swoon. As this was a time 
when everybody had his own life to think of, nobody 
minded me, or what was become of me ; but another man 
stepped up to the pump, and thrusting me aside with his 
foot, let me lie, thinking I had been dead ; and it was a 
great while before I came to myself. 

We worked on ; but the water increasing in the hold, it 
was apparent that the ship would founder; and though 
the storm began to abate a little, yet, as it was not possible 
she could swim till we might run into a port, so the master 
continued firing guns for help, and a light ship, who had 
rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us. 
It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us ; but 
it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to 
lie near the ship’s side, till at last, the men rowing very 
heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men 
cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then 
veered it out a great length, which they, after great labor 
and hazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close under 
our stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no pur- 
pose for them or us after we were in the boat to think of 
reaching to their own ship, so all agreed to let her drive, 
and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could ; 
and our master promised them, that if the boat was staved 
upon shore, he would make it good to their master ; so, 
partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to 
the norward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as 
Winterton Ness. 

We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out 


Robinson Crusoe 


l 3 


of our ship when we saw her sink, and then I understood 
for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in 
the sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look 
up when the seamen told me she was sinking ; for from 
that moment they rather put me into the boat than that I 
might be said to go in. My heart was, as it were, dead 
within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of mind 
and the thoughts of what was yet before me. 

While we were in this condition, the men yet laboring 
at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see, 
when our boat, mounting the waves, we were able to see 
the shore, a great many people running along the shore to 
assist us when we should come near; but we made but 
slow way towards the shore, nor were we able to reach the 
shore, till, being past the lighthouse at Winterton, the shore 
falls off to the westward towards Cromer, and so the land 
broke off a little the violence of the wind. Here we got 
in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on 
shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, 
as unfortunate men, we were used with great humanity, as 
well by the magistrates of the town, who assigned us good 
quarters, as by particular merchants and owners of ships, 
and had money given us sufficient to carry us either to 
London or back to Hull, as we thought fit. 

Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, 
and have gone home, I had been happy, and my father, 
an emblem of our blessed Saviour’s parable, had even 
killed the fatted calf for me ; for, hearing the ship I went 
away in was cast away in Yarmouth Road, it was a great 
while before he had any assurance that I was not drowned. 

But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy 
that nothing could resist ; and though I had several times 
loud calls from my reason and my more composed judg- 
ment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know 


14 The Life and Adventures of 

not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret 
overruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments 
of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and 
that we rush upon it with our eyes open. Certainly noth- 
ing but some such decreed unavoidable misery attending, 
and which it was impossible for me to escape, could have 
pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and per- 
suasions of my most retired thoughts, and against two 
such visible instructions as I had met with in my first 
attempt. 

My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and 
who was the master’s son, was now less forward than I. 
The first time he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, 
which was not till two or three days, for we were separated 
in the town to several quarters ; I say, the first time he 
saw me, it appeared his tone was altered, and looking very 
melancholy, and shaking his head, asked me how I did, 
and telling his father who I was, and how I had come this 
voyage only for a trial, in order to go further abroad. His 
father, turning to me with a very grave and concerned 
tone, “Young man,” says he, “you ought never to go to 
sea any more ; you ought to take this for a plain and visible 
token that you are not to be a seafaring man.” — “Why, 
sir,” said I ; “ will you go to sea no more ? ” — “ That is 
another case,” said he. “ It is my calling, and therefore 
my duty ; but as you made this voyage for a trial, you see 
what a taste Heaven has given you of what you are to 
expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all befallen us on 
your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,” 
continues he, “ what are you ? and on what account did 
you go to sea ? ” Upon that I told him some of my story, 
at the end of which he burst out with a strange kind 
of passion, “What had I done,” says he, “that such an 
unhappy wretch should come into my ship ? I would not 


Robinson Crusoe 


*5 


set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thou- 
sand pounds.” This, indeed, was, as I said, an excursion 
of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his 
loss, and was further than he could have authority to go. 
However, he afterward talked very gravely to me ; exhorted 
me to go back to my father, and not tempt Providence to 
my ruin ; told me I might see a visible hand of Heaven 
against me ; “ And, young man,” said he, “ depend upon 
it, if you do not go back, wherever you go you will meet 
with nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your 
father’s words are fulfilled upon you.” 

We parted soon after, for I made him little answer, and 
I saw him no more. Which way he went I know not. As 
for me, having some money in my pocket, I travelled to 
London by land ; and there, as well as on the road, had 
many struggles with myself, what course of life I should 
take, and whether I should go home or go to sea. 

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that 
offered to my thoughts : and it immediately occurred to 
me how I should be laughed at among the neighbors, 
and should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother 
only, but even everybody else ; from whence I have since 
often observed how incongruous and irrational the common 
temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason 
which ought to guide them in such cases ; namely, that 
they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to 
repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought 
justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the return- 
ing, which only can make them be esteemed wise men. 

In this state of life, however, I remained some time, 
uncertain what measures to take and what course of life 
to lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to going home ; 
and as I stayed a while, the remembrance of the distress I 
had been in wore off ; and as that abated, the little motion 


The Life and Adventures of 


1 6 

I had in my desires to a return wore off with it, till at last 
I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a 
voyage. 



“ YOU’RE BUT A FRESH- WATER SAII.OR.” [See page 8 


Robinson Crusoe 


17 


II. Crusoe becomes a trading adventurer — 
Is captured and made a slave — Escapes 
and after many adventures in an open 
boat is picked up by a Portuguese vessel 
and taken to the Brazils. 

That evil influence which carried me first away from my 
father’s house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested 
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed those con- 
ceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good 
advice, and to the entreaties and even command of my 
father — I say, the same influence, whatever it was, pre- 
sented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view, 
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa, 
or, as our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea. 

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures 
I did not ship myself as a sailor, whereby, though I might 
indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at 
the same time I had learned the duty and office of a fore- 
mast man, and in time might have qualified myself for a 
mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was 
always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here ; for, 
having money in my pocket, and good clothes upon my 
back, I would always go on board in the habit of a gentle- 
man. And so I neither had any business in the ship, or 
learned to do any. 

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good com- 
pany in London, which does not always happen to such 
loose and unguided young fellows as I then was, the devil 
generally not omitting to lay some snare for them very 
c 


1 8 The Life and Adventures of 

early. But it was not so with me. I first fell acquainted 
with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of 
Guinea; and who having had very good success there, 
was resolved to go again ; and who, taking a fancy to my 
conversation, which was not at all disagreeable at that 
time, hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, told 
me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no 
expense ; I should be his messmate and his companion ; 
and if I could carry anything with me, I should have all 
the advantage of it that the trade would admit, and perhaps 
I might meet with some encouragement. 

I embraced the offer, and, entering into a strict friend- 
ship with this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing 
man, I went the voyage with' him, and carried a small 
adventure with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of 
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for 
I carried about £ 40 in such toys and trifles as the captain 
directed me to buy. This £40 I had mustered together 
by the assistance of some of my relations whom I corre- 
sponded with, and who, I believe, got my father, or at 
least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first 
adventure. 

This was the only voyage which I may say was success- 
ful in. all my adventures, and which I owe to the integrity 
and honesty of my friend the captain, under whom also I 
got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the 
rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of 
the ship’s course, take an observation, and, in short, to 
understand some things that were needful to be understood 
by a sailor. For, as he took delight to introduce me, I 
took delight to learn ; and, in a word, this voyage made 
me both a sailor and a merchant ; for I brought home five 
pounds nine ounces of gold dust for my adventure, which 
yielded me in London at my return almost ,£300, and this 


Robinson Crusoe 


l 9 


















filled me with those aspiring thoughts which have since 
so completed my ruin. 

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too, par- 
ticularly that I was continually sick, being thrown into a 
violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate, our 
principal trading being upon the coast, from the latitude 
of fifteen degrees north even to the line itself. 

I was now set up for a Guinea trader ; and my friend, to 
my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved 
to go the same voyage again, and I embarked in the same 
vessel with one who was his mate in the former voyage, 
and had now got the command of the ship. This was the 
unhappiest voyage that ever man made ; for though I did 
not carry quite ;£ioo of my new gained wealth, so that I 
had ^200 left, which I lodged with my friend’s widow, 
who was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes 
in this voyage ; and the first was this ; namely, our ship 
making her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather 
between those islands and the African shore, was surprised 
in the gray of the morning by a Turkish rover of Sallee, 
who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. We 
crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread 
or our masts carry to have got clear ; but finding the pirate 
gained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in 
a few hours, we prepared to fight, our ship having twelve 
guns and the rogue eighteen. About three in the after- 
noon he came up with us, and bringing-to by mistake just 
athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he 
intended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on that 
side, and poured in a broadside upon him, which made 
him sheer off again, after returning our fire and pouring 
in also his small-shot from near two hundred men which 
he had on board. However, we had not a man touched, 
all our men keeping close. He prepared to attack us 


0.0 


The Life and Adventures of 


again, and we to defend ourselves ; but laying us on board 
the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men 
upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hack- 
ing the decks and rigging. We plied them with small-shot, 
half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our 
deck of them twice. However, to cut short this melan- 
choly part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three 
of our men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged to 
yield, and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port 
belonging to the Moors. 

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I 
apprehended, nor was I carried up the country to the 
emperor’s court, as the rest of our men were, but was 
kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and 
made his slave, being young and nimble and fit for his 
business. At this surprising change of my circumstances, 
from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly 
overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon my father’s 
prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable, 
and have none to relieve me, which I thought was now 
so effectually brought to pass, that it could not be worse ; 
that now the hand of Heaven had overtaken me, and I 
was undone without redemption. But, alas ! this was but 
a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear 
in the sequel of this story. 

As my new patron or master had taken me home to his 
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him 
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some 
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Por- 
tugal man-of-war ; and that then I should be set at liberty. 
But this hope of mine was soon taken away ; for when he 
went to sea he left me on shore to look after his little 
garden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about his 
house ; and when he came home again from his cruise, he 
ordered me to lie in the cabin and look after the ship. 


Robinson Crusoe 


21 


Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what 
method I might take to effect it, but found no way that 
had the least probability in it. Nothing presented to make 
the supposition of it rational ; for I had nobody to com- 
municate it to that would embark with me, no fellow-slave, 
no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotsman there but myself ; 
so that for two years, though I often pleased myself with 
the imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging 
prospect of putting it in practice. 

After about two years an odd circumstance presented 
itself, which put the old thought of making some attempt 
for my liberty again in my head. My patron lying at 
home longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, 
as I heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, 
once or twice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather 
was fair, to take the ship’s pinnace, and go out into the 
road a-fishing; and as he always took me and a young 
Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him very 
merry, and I proved very dexterous in catching fish, inso- 
much that sometimes he would send me with a Moor, one 
of his kinsmen, and the youth — the Maresco, as they 
called him — to catch a dish of fish for him. 

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark 
calm morning, a fog arose so thick, that though we were 
not half a league from the shore we lost sight of it ; and 
rowing not whither or which way, we labored all day and 
all the next night, and when the morning came we found 
we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore ; 
and that we were at least two leagues from the shore. 
However, we got well in again, though with a good deal 
of labor and some danger; for the wind began to blow 
pretty fresh in the morning ; but particularly we were all 
very hungry. 

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to 


22 


The Life and Adventures of 


take more care of himself for the future ; and having 
lying by him the longboat of our English ship he had 
taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing any more 
without a compass and some provision. So he ordered 
the carpenter of his ship, who also was an English slave, 
to build a little state-room or cabin in the middle of the 
longboat, like that of a barge, with a place to stand behind 
it to steer and hale home the main-sheet ; and room before 
for a hand or two to stand and work the sails. She sailed 
with what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail ; and the boom 
gibed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and 
low, and had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two ; 
and a table to eat on, with some small lockers to put in 
some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink ; 
particularly his bread, rice, and coffee. 

We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing. And 
as I was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never 
went without me. It happened that he had appointed to 
go out in this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with 
two or three Moors of some distinction in that place and 
for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had there- 
fore sent on board the boat overnight a larger store of 
provisions than ordinary ; and had ordered me to get ready 
three fuzees with powder and shot, which were on board 
his ship, for that they designed some sport of fowling as 
well as fishing. 

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the 
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and 
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests. 
When by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and 
told me his guests had put off going, upon some business 
that fell out, and ordered me with the man and boy as 
usual to go out with the boat and catch them some fish, 
for that his friends were to sup at his house ; and com- 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 3 

manded that as soon as I had got some fish, I should bring 
it home to his house ; all which I prepared to do. 

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted 
into my thoughts, for now I found that I was like to have 
a little ship at my command ; and my master being gone, 
I prepared to furnish myself, not for a fishing business, 
but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so 
much as consider, whither I should steer; for anywhere 
to get out of that place was my way. 

My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to 
this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board ; 
for I told him we must not presume to eat of our patron’s 
bread. He said that was true; so he brought a large 
basket of rusk or biscuit of their kind, and three jars with 
fresh water into the boat. I knew where my patron’s case 
of bottles stood, which it was evident by the make were 
taken out of some English prize, and I conveyed them 
into the boat while the Moor was on shore, as if they had 
been there before for our master. I conveyed also a great 
lump of bees’-wax into the boat, which weighed above half 
a hundredweight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a 
hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all which were of great use 
to us afterwards, especially the wax to make candles. 
Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocently came 
into also. His name was Ismael, who they call Muly or 
Moely; so I called to him, — “Moely,” said I, “our 
patron’s guns are on board the boat ; can you not get a 
little powder and shot? It may be we may kill some 
alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know 
he keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.” — “Yes,” says 
he, “ I’ll bring some.” And accordingly he brought a 
great leather pouch, which held about a pound and a half 
of powder, or rather more, and another with shot, that had 
five or six pound, with some bullets, and put all into the 


24 


The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 


boat. At the same time I had found some powder of my 
master’s in the great cabin, with which I filled one of the 
large bottles in the case, which was almost empty, pouring 
what was in it into another; and thus furnished with 
everything needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The 
castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we 
were, and took no notice of us ; and we were not above a 
mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail, and set 
us down to fish. The wind blew from the north-north- 
east, which was contrary to my desire ; for had it blown 
southerly, I had been "sure to have made the coast of 
Spain, and at least reached the Bay of Cadiz ; but my 
resolutions were, blow which way it would, I would be 
gone from that horrid place where I was, and leave the 
rest to'fate. 

After we had fished some time and catched nothing — 
for when I had fish on my hook, I would not pull them 
up, that he might not see them — I said to the Moor, 
“ This will not do ; our master will not be thus served ; we 
must stand farther off.” He, thinking no harm, agreed; 
and being in the head of the boat, set the sails : and as I 
had the helm, I run the boat out near a league farther, 
and then brought her to, as if I would fish ; when, giving 
the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor 
was, and making as if I stooped for something behind him, 
I took him by surprise with my arm under his twist, and 
tossed him clear overboard into the sea. * He rose immedi- 
ately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged 
to be taken in ; told me he would go all over the world 
with me. He swam so strong after the boat that he would 
have reached me very quickly, there being but little wind ; 
upon which I stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of 
the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told him I 
had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I would 



26 


The Life and Adventures of 


do him none. “ But,” said I, “ you swim well enough to 
reach to the shore, and the sea is calm ; make the best of 
your way to shore, and I will do you no harm, but if you 
come near the boat I’ll shoot you through the head, for 
I am resolved to have my liberty.” So he turned himself 
about and swam for the shore ; and I make no doubt but 
he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer. 

I could have been content to have taken this Moor with 
me and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing 
to trust him. When he was gone I turned to the boy, who 
they called Xury, and said to him, “ Xury, if you will be 
faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man ; but if you will 
not stroke your face to be true to me, that is, swear by 
Mahomet and his father’s beard, I must throw you into 
the sea too.” The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so 
innocently, that I could not mistrust him ; and swore to 
be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me. 

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I 
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching 
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the 
strait’s mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their 
wits must have been supposed to do) ; for who would have 
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly 
barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure 
to surround us with their canoes, and destroy us; where 
we could never once go on shore but we should be 
devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of 
human kind. 

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening I changed 
my course, and steered directly south and by east, bending 
my course a little toward the east, that I might keep in 
with the shore ; and having a fair fresh gale of wind and 
a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the 
next day at three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first 


Robinson Crusoe 


27 


made the land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of 
Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco’s domin- 
ions, or, indeed, of any other king thereabouts, for we saw 
no people. 

Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, and 
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their 
hands, that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to 
an anchor, the wind continuing fair, till I had sailed in 
that manner five days ; and then the wind shifting to the 
southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were 
in chase of me, they also would now give over. So I ven- 
tured to make to the coast, and came to an anchor in the 
mouth of a little river, I knew not what, or where ; neither 
what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river. I 
neither saw, nor desired to see, any people ; the principal 
thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek 
in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it 
was dark, and discover the country ; but as soon as it was 
quite dark we heard such dreadful noises of the barking, 
roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew not 
what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, 
and begged of me not to go on shore till day. “Well, 
Xury,” said I, “then I won’t; but it may be we may 
see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions.” 
— “Then we give them the shoot gun,” says Xury, laugh- 
ing ; “ make them run way.” Such English Xury spoke by 
conversing among us slaves. However, I was glad to see 
the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our 
patron’s case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury’s 
advice was good, and I took it. We dropped our little 
anchor, and lay still all night — I say still, for we slept 
none — for in two or three hours we saw vast great crea- 
tures (we knew not what to call them) of many sorts come 
down to the sea-shore, and run into the water, wallowing 


28 


The Life and Adventures of 


and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling them- j to 
selves; and they made such hideous howlipgs and yell- 
ings, that I never indeed heard the like. 

Xury was dreadfully frightened, and indeed so was I 
too. But we were both more frightened when we heard | 
one of these mighty creatures come swimming towards our 
boat. We could not see him, but we might hear him by 
his blowing to be a monstrous, huge, and furious beast. 
Xury said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught I , 
know ; but poor Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor, and 
row away. “No,” says I; “Xury, we can slip our cable d 
with the buoy to it, and go off to sea. They cannot follow , 
us far.” I had no sooner said so but I perceived the ! 
creature (whatever it was) within two oars’ length, which 
something surprised me. However, I immediately stepped 
to the cabin-door, and taking up my gun, fired at him, 
upon which he immediately turned about, and swam 
towards the shore again. 

But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, and 
hideous cries and howlings, that were raised as well upon 
the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon 
the noise or report of the gun — a thing I have some rea- 5 
son to believe those creatures had never heard before. 
This convinced me that there was no going on shore for 
us in the night upon that coast ; and how to venture on 
shore in the day was another question too, for to have 
fallen into the hands of any of the savages had been as 
bad as to have fallen into the hands of lions and tigers ; ! 
at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it. 

Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore 
somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint left 
in the boat. When or where to get to it was the point. 
Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with one of the I 
jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some i 


Robinson Crusoe 


29 


to me. I asked him why he would go — why I should not 
go and he stay in the boat ? The boy answered with so 
much affection that made me love him ever after. Says 
he, “ If wild mans come, they eat me ; you go way.” 
— “ Well, Xury,” said I, “ we will both go ; and if the wild 
mans come, we will kill them. They shall eat neither of 
us.” So I gave Xury a piece of rusk-bread to eat, and a 
dram out of our patron’s case of bottles which I mentioned 
before ; and we haled the boat in as near the shore as we 
thought was proper, and waded on shore, carrying nothing 
but our arms and two jars for water. 

I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the 
coming of canoes with savages down the river; but the 
boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country, 
rambled to it ; and by and by I saw him come running 
towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, 
or frightened with some wild beast, and I ran forward 
towards him to help him ; but when I came nearer to him, 
I saw something hanging over his shoulders — which was 
a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in 
color and longer legs. However, we were very glad of 
it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor 
Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good water 
and seen no wild mans. 

But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains 
for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, 
we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which 
flowed but a little way up. So we filled our jars, and 
feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on 
our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature 
in that part of the country. 

As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew 
very well that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de 
Verd Islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as 


30 


The Life and Adventures of 


I had no instruments to take an observation to know; 
what latitude we were in, and did not exactly know, or at 
least remember, what latitude they were in, I knew not 
where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea! 
towards them; otherwise I might now easily have found 
some of these islands. But my hope was, that if I stood 
along this coast till I came to that part where the English 
traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual 
design of trade, that would relieve and take us in. 

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was, 
must be that country which, lying between the Emperor of 
Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste and unin- 
habited, except by wild beasts — the negroes having aban- 
doned it and gone farther south, for fear of the Moors ; 
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason 
of its barrenness. And, indeed, both forsaking it because 
of the prodigious numbers of tigers, lions, leopards, and 
other furious creatures which harbor there ; so that the 
Moors use it for their hunting only, where they go like an 
army, two or three thousand men at a time. And, indeed, 
for near a hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw 
nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day, and heard 
nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts by night. 

Once or twice in the daytime, I thought I saw the Pico 
of Teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain Teneriffe 
in the Canaries ; and had a great mind to venture out in 
hopes of reaching thither ; but having tried twice, I was 
forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too 
high for my little vessel, so I resolved to pursue my first 
design and keep along the shore. 

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water after 
we had left this place ; and once in particular, being early 
in the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point 
of land which was pretty high, and the tide beginning to 


Robinson Crusoe 


3i 

flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were 
more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to 

I me and tells me that we had best go farther off the shore : 

I — “ For,” says he, “ look, yonder lies a dreadful monster 
on the side of that hillock fast asleep.” I looked where 
he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed ; for it was 
a terrible great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under 

: the shade of a piece of the hill, that hung as it were a little 
over him. “Xury,” says I, “you shall go on shore and 
kill him.” Xury looked frightened, and said, “Me kill! 
he eat me at one mouth” — one mouthful, he meant. 

I 

However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie still; 
and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, 
and loaded it with a good charge of powder and with two 
slugs, and laid it down ; then I loaded another gun with 
two bullets ; and the third — for we had three pieces — I 
loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best aim I 
could with the first piece to have shot him into the head, 
but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, 
that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke the 
bone. He started up, growling at first ; but finding his leg 
broke, fell down again ; and then got up upon three legs, 
and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was 
a little surprised that I had not hit him on the head. 
However, I took up the second piece immediately ; and 
though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him 
into the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop, and 
make but little noise, but lay struggling for life. Then 
Xury took heart, and would have me let him go on shore. 
“Well, go,” said I. So the boy jumped into the water, 
and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with 
the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the 
muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him into the head 
again, which despatched him quite. 


The Life and Adventures of 


3 2 

This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; anc 
I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shoi? 
upon a creature that was good for nothing to us. However | 
Xury said he would have some of him ; so he comes or 
board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. “ For what, 
Xury?” said I. “Me cut off his head,” said he. How- 
ever, Xury could not cut off his head ; but he cut off a 
foot and brought it with him — and it was a monstrous^ 
great one. 

I bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin of 
him might one way or other be of some value to us ; and 
I resolved to take off his skin if I could. So Xury and I 
went to work with him ; but Xury was much the better 
workman at it — for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, 
it took us up both the whole day ; but at last we got off 
the hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin, 
the sun effectually dried it in two days’ time, and it after- 
wards served me to lie upon. 

After this stop we made on to the southward continually 
for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provi- 
sions, which began to abate very much, and going no 
oftener into the shore than we were obliged to for fresh 
water. My design in this was to make the river Gambia 
or Senegal — that is to say, anywhere about the Cape de 
Verd, where I was in hopes to meet with some European 
ship : and if I did not, I knew not what course I had to 
take, but to seek for the islands or perish there among the 
negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe — which 
sailed either to the coast of Guinea, or to Brazil, or to the 
East Indies — made this cape or those islands; and in a 
word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single 
point, either that I must meet with some ship or must 
perish. 

When I had pursued this resolution about ten days 


Robinson Crusoe 


33 


longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was 
inhabited ; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we 
saw people stand upon the shore to look at us. We could 
also perceive they were quite black and stark naked. I 
was once inclined to have gone on shore to them. But 
Xury was my better counsellor, and said to me, “No go, 
no go.” However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I 
might talk to them, and I found they ran along the shore 
by me a good way. I observed they had no weapons in 
their hands — except one, who had a long slender stick, 
which Xury said was a lance, and that they would throw 
them a great way with good aim. So I kept at a distance, 
but talked with them by signs as well as I could ; and par- 
ticularly made signs for something to eat. They beckoned 
to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me some 
meat. Upon this I lowered the top of my sail and lay by; 
and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than 
half an hour came back and brought with them two pieces 
of dry flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their 
country — but we neither knew what the one or the other 
was. However, we were willing to accept it, but how to 
come at it was our next dispute; for I was not for ven- 
turing on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of 
us. But they took a safe way for us all — for they brought 
it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great 
way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to 
us again. 

We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to 
make them amends. But an opportunity offered that very 
instant to oblige them wonderfully — for while we were 
lying by the shore, came two mighty creatures, one pur- 
suing the other (as we took it) with great fury, from the 
mountains towards the sea. Whether it was the male pur- 
suing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, 

D 


34 


The Life and Adventures of 


we could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it 
was usual or strange; but I believe it was the latter — 
because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures sel- 
dom appear but in the night ; and, in the second place, we 
found the people terribly frightened, especially the women. 
The man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them, 
but the rest did. However, as the two creatures ran 
directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall 1 
upon any of the negroes, but plunged themselves into the 
sea, and swam about as if they had come for their diver- 
sion. At last one of them began to come nearer our boat 
than at first I expected, but I lay ready for him ; for I had 
loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury 
load both the others. As soon as he came fairly within my 
reach I fired, and shot him directly into the head. Imme- 
diately he sank down into the water, but rose instantly and 
plunged up and down as if he was struggling for life. And 
so indeed he was. He immediately made to the shore ; 
but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and 
the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached 
the shore. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment of these 
poor creatures at the noise and the fire of my gun ; some 
of them were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as 
dead with the very terror. But when they saw the crea- 
ture dead and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to 
them to come to the shore, they took heart and came to 
the shore, and began to search for the creature. I found 
him by his blood staining the water ; and by the help of a 
rope which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to 
haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a 
most curious leopard, spotted and fine to an admirable 
degree ; and the negroes held up their hands with admira- 
tion to think what it was I had killed him with. 


Robinson Crusoe 


35 


The other creature, frightened with the flash of fire and 
the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly 
to the mountains from whence they came, nor could I at 
that distance know what it was. I found quickly the 
negroes were for eating the flesh of this creature, so I was 
willing to have them take it as a favor from me ; which, 
when I made signs to them that they might take him, they 
were very thankful for. Immediately they fell to work 
with him ; and though they had no knife, yet with a sharp- 
ened piece of wood they took off his skin as readily — and 
much more readily than we could have done with a knife. 
They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, mak- 
ing as if I would give it them ; but made signs for the skin, 
which they gave me very freely, and brought me a great 
deal more of their provision, which, though I did not 
understand, yet I accepted. Then I made signs to them 
for some water, and held out one of my jars to them, turn- 
ing it bottom upward, to show that it was empty, and that 
I wanted to have it filled. They called immediately to 
some of their friends; and there came two women, and 
brought a great vessel made of earth, and burned as I 
suppose in the sun. This they set down for me as before ; 
and I sent Xury on shore with nly jars, and filled them all 
three. The women were as stark naked as the men. 

I was now furnished with roots and corn — such as it 
was — and water; and leaving my friendly negroes, I 
made forward for about eleven days more without offer- 
ing to go near the shore, till I saw the land run out a 
great length into the sea, at about the distance of four 
or five leagues before me, and the sea being very calm, 
I kept a large offing to make this point. At length, 
doubling the point at about two leagues from the land, 
I saw plainly land on the other side to seaward. Then 
I concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this 


The Life and Adventures of 

was the Cape de Verd Islands. However, they were at 
a great distance ; and I could not well tell what I had 
best to do, for if I should be taken with a fresh of 
wind, I might neither reach one nor the other. 

In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into 
the cabin and sat me down, Xury having the helm, when 
on a sudden the boy cried out, “ Master, master, a ship 
with a sail ! ” and the foolish boy was frightened out of 
his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master’s 
ships sent to pursue us, when I knew we were gotten 
far enough out of their reach. I jumped out of the 
cabin, and immediately saw not only the ship, but what 
she was — namely, that it was a Portuguese ship, and, as 
I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea for negroes. 
But when I observed the course she steered, I was soon 
convinced they were bound some other way, and did not 
design to come any nearer to the shore. Upon which I 
stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to 
speak with them if possible. 

With all the sail I could make, I found I should not 
be able to come in their way, but that they would be 
gone by before I could make any signal to them. But 
after I had crowded to the utmost and began to despair, 
they, it seems, saw me by the help of their perspective- j! 
glasses, and that it was some European boat, which, as 
they supposed, must belong to some ship that was lost; 
so they shortened sail to let me come up. I was encour- 
aged with this ; and as I had my patron’s ancient on 
board, I made a waft of it to them for a signal of dis- 
tress, and fired a gun — both which they saw, for they 
told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear 
the gun. Upon these signals they very kindly brought 
to, and lay by for me, and in about three hours’ time I 
came up with them. 


Robinson Crusoe 


37 


They asked me what I was, in Portuguese and in 
Spanish and in French, but I understood none of them; 
but at last a Scotch sailor who was on board -called to 
me ; and I answered him, and told him I was an Eng- 
lishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from 
the Moors at Sallee. Then they bade me come on board, 
and very kindly took me in and all my goods. 

It was an inexpressible joy to me — that any one will 
believe — that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, 
from such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as 
I was in, and I immediately offered all I had to the 
captain of the ship as a return for my deliverance ; but 
he generously told me he would take nothing from me, 
but that all I had should be delivered safe to me when 
I came to the Brazils. “For,” says he, “I have saved 
your life on no other terms than I would be glad to be 
saved myself, and it may one time or other be my lot 
to be taken up in the same condition; besides,” said he, 
“when I carry you to the Brazils, so great a way from 
your own country, if I should take from you what you 
have, you will be starved there, and then I only take 
away that life I have given. No, no, Seignor Inglese,” 
says he, “ Mr. Englishman, I will carry you thither in 
charity, and those things will help you to buy your sub- 
sistence there and your passage home again.” 

As he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in 
the performance to a tittle ; for he ordered the seamen 
that none should offer to touch anything I had. Then 
he took everything into his own possession, and gave me 
back an exact inventory of them, that I might have 
them, even so much as my three earthen jars. 

As to my boat it was a very good one, and that he 
saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the ship’s 
use, and asked me what I would have for it. I told 


38 


The Life and Adventures of 


him he had been so generous to me in everything, that 
I could not offer to make any price of the boat, but left 
it entirely to him ; upon which he told me he would give 
me a note of his hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight! 
for it at Brazil, and when it came there, if any one offered-, 
to give more he would make it up. He offered me also i 
sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury ; which I was 
loath to take : not that I was not willing to let the cap- 
tain have him, but I was very loath to sell the poor boy’s 
liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring < 
my own However, when I let him know my reason, he 
owned it to be just, and offered me this medium — that 
he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in 
ten years, if he turned Christian. Upon this, and Xury 
saying he was willing to go to him, I let the captain 
have him. 

We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and arrived 
in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All-Saints’ Bay, in 
about twenty-two days after. And now I was once more 
delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of 
life ; and what to do next with myself I was now to 
consider. 

The generous treatment the captain gave me I can ; 
never enough remember. He would take nothing of me 
for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard’s 
skin and forty for the lion’s skin which I had in my boat, 
and caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually u 
delivered me ; and what I was willing to sell he bought, 
such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece j 
of the lump of bees’-wax, for I had made candles of the 
rest. In a word, I made about two hundred and twenty 
pieces of eight of all my cargo ; and with this stock I 
went on shore in the Brazils. \y 


Robinson Crusoe 


39 


III. Crusoe buys land , and becomes a planter 
— Success attends his trading — He 
again grows discontented and sails in 
a slave ship — The ship is wrecked and 
all but Crusoe drowned — With neither 
food nor weapons he passes his first 
night in a tree. 

I had not been long here, but being recommended to 
the house of a good honest man like himself, who had 
an “ingenio,” as they call it — that is, a plantation and a 
sugar-house — I lived with him some time, and acquainted 
myself by that means with the manner of their planting 
and making of sugar. And seeing how well the planters 
lived, and how they grew rich suddenly, I resolved, if I 
could get license to settle there, I would turn planter 
among them ; resolving in the meantime to find out some 
way to get my money, which I had left in London, remitted 
. to me. To this purpose, getting a kind of a letter of 
j naturalization, I purchased as much land that was uncured 
as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my plan- 
tation and settlement, and such a one as might be suitable 
to the stock which I proposed to myself to receive from 
England. 

I had a neighbor — a Portuguese of Lisbon, but born of 
English parents — whose name was Wells, and in much 
such circumstances as I was. I call him my neighbor, 
because his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on 
* very sociably together. My stock was but low as well as 
his ; and we rather planted for food than anything else for 



4 o 


The Life and Adventures of 


about two years. However, we began to increase, and our 
land began to come into order ; so that the third year we 
planted some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece 
of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come. 
But we both wanted help ; and now I found, more than 
before, I had done wrong in parting with my boy Xury. 

But alas ! for me to do wrong that never did right was 
no great wonder.. I had no remedy but to go on. I was 
gotten into an employment quite remote to my genius, and 
directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for which I 
forsook my father’s house, and broke through all his good 
advice ; nay, I was coming into the very middle station, or 
upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to 
before, and which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as 
well have stayed at home, and never have fatigued myself 
in the world as I had done. And I used often to say to 
myself, I could have done this as well in England among 
my friends as have gone five thousand miles off to do it 
among strangers and savages in a wilderness, and at such 
a distance as never to hear from any part of the world that 
had the least knowledge of me. 

In this manner I used to look upon my condition with 
the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with but 
now and then this neighbor — no work to be done but by 
the labor of my hands; and I used to say I lived just like 
a man cast away upon some desolate island that had 
nobody there but himself. But how just has it been, and 
how should all men reflect, that when they compare their 
present conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may 
oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced of 
their former felicity by their experience, — I say how just 
has it been that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an 
island of mere desolation, should be my lot, who had so 
often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led; 


Robinson Crusoe 


4i 


in which, had I continued, I had in all probability been 
exceeding prosperous and rich ! 

I was in some degree settled in my measures for carry- 
ing on the plantation, before my kind friend, the captain 
of the ship that took me up at sea, went back — for the 
ship remained there in providing his loading and preparing 
for his voyage near three months — when, telling him what 
little stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me 
this friendly and sincere advice. “ Seignor Inglese,” says 
he, — for so he always called me, — “ if you will give me 
letters, and a procuration here in form to me, with orders 
to the person who has your money in London, to send 
your effects to Lisbon to such persons as I shall direct, 
and in such goods as are proper for this country, I will 
bring you the produce of them, God willing, at my return. 
But since human affairs are all subject to changes and to 
disasters, I would have you give orders but for one hun- 
dred pounds sterling, which you say is half your stock, 
and let the hazard be run for the first ; so that if it come 
safe you may order the rest the same way, and if it mis- 
carry you may have the other half to have recourse to for 
your supply.” 

This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, 
that I could not but be convinced it was the best course I 
could take ; so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentle- 
woman with whom I had left my money, and a procuration 
to the Portuguese captain, as he desired. 

I wrote the English captain’s widow a full account of all 
my adventures ; my slavery, escape, and how I had met 
with the Portugal captain at sea, the humanity of his 
behavior, and in what condition I was now in, with all 
other necessary directions for my supply. And when this 
honest captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some 
of the English merchants there, to send over, not the order 


42 The Life and Adventures of 

only, but a full account of my story, to a merchant at Lou A 
don, who represented it effectually to her; whereupon she 
not only delivered the money, but out of her own pocket- 
sent the Portugal captain a very handsome present for hisl, 
humanity and charity to me. 

The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds 
in English goods such as the captain had writ for, sent 
them directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all 
safe to me to the Brazils ; among which, without my direc- 
tion — for I was too young in my business to think of them j 
— he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, iron-work, j 
and utensils necessary for my plantation, and which were 
of great use to me. 

When this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made, for 
I was surprised with the joy of it; and my good steward 
the captain had laid out the five pounds, which my friend J 
had sent him for a present for himself, to purchase and 
bring me over a servant under bond for six years’ service, 
and would not accept of any consideration except a little, 
tobacco, which I would have him accept, being of my own 
produce. 

Neither was this all. But my goods being all English 
manufactures, such as cloth, stuffs, bays, and things par- 
ticularly valuable and desirable in the country, I found 
means to sell them to a very great advantage ; so that I 
may say I had more than four times the value of my first: 
cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbor — 

I mean in the advancement of my plantation ; for the first 
thing I did I bought me a negro slave, and an European 
servant also — I mean another besides that which the 
captain brought me from Lisbon. 

But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very, 
means of our greatest adversity, so was it with me. I 
went on the next year with great success in my plantation.. 


Robinson Crusoe 


43 


I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, 
more than I had disposed of for necessaries among my 
neighbors ; and these fifty rolls being each of above a 
hundredweight, were well cured and laid by against the 
return of the fleet from Lisbon. And now, increasing in 
business and in wealth, my head began to be full of pro- 
jects and undertakings beyond my reach — such as are 
indeed often the ruin of the best heads in business. 

Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had room 
for all the happy things to have yet befallen me for which 
my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, 
and of which he had so sensibly described the middle sta- 
tion of life to be full of. But other things attended me, 
and I was still to be the wilful agent of all my own mis- 
eries, and particularly to increase my fault and double the 
reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I 
should have leisure to make. All these miscarriages were 
procured by my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish 
inclination of wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclina- 
tion in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself 
good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and 
those measures of life which Nature and Providence con- 
curred to present me with and to make my duty. 

As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my 
parents, so I could not be content now, but I must go and 
leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving 
man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and 
immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the 
thing admitted ; and thus I cast myself down again into 
the deepest gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, 
or perhaps could be consistent with life and a state of 
health in the world. 

To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of 
this part of my story. You may suppose that having now 


44 


The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 


lived almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning to 
thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, I had not 
only learned the language, but had contracted acquaint- 
ance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as 
among the merchants at St. Salvadore, which was our 
port ; and that, in my discourses among them, I had fre- 
quently given them an account of my two voyages to the 
coast of Guinea, the manner of trading with the negroes 
there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for 
trifles — such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits 
of glass, and the like — not only gold dust, Guinea grains, 
elephants’ teeth, etc., but negroes for the service of the 
Brazils in great numbers. 

They listened always very attentively to my discourses 
bn these heads, but especially to that part which related to 
the buying negroes ; which was a trade at that time not 
only not far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been 
carried on by the assiento , or permission of the Kings of 
Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in the public ; so that 
few negroes were brought, and those excessively dear. 

It happened, being in company with some merchants and 
planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things 
very earnestly, three of them came to me the next morning, 
and told me they had been musing very much upon what I 
had discoursed with them of the last night, and they came 
to make a secret proposal to me. And after enjoining me 
secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit out a 
ship to go to Guinea ; that they had all plantations as well 
as I, and were straitened for nothing so much as servants ; 
that as it was a trade that could not be carried on, because 
they could not publicly sell the negroes when they came 
home, so they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the 
negroes on shore privately, and divide them among their 
own plantations; and, in a word, the question was, whether 



€t 





m 




O 






4 6 


The Life and Adventures of 


I would go their supercargo in the ship to manage the 3 
trading part upon the coast of Guinea. And they offered a 
me that I should have my equal share of the negroes, $ 
without providing any part of the stock. 

This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it 
been made to any one that had not had a settlement and ! 
plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair way I 
of coming to be very considerable, and with a good stock 
upon it. But for me that was thus entered and established, 
and had nothing to do but go on as I had begun for three 
or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred 
pound from England, and who in that time, and with that i 
little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth j 
three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing 
too, — for me to think of such a voyage was the most 
preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances 
could be guilty of ! 

But I that was born to be my own destroyer, could no 
more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling 
designs when my father’s good counsel was lost upon me. I 
In a word, I told them I would go with all my heart if they j 
would undertake to look after my plantation in my absence, 
and would dispose of it to such as I should direct if I mis- 
carried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into 
writings or covenants to do so ; and I made a formal will, 
disposing of my plantation and effects, in case of my 
death, making the captain of the ship that had saved my 
life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to dis- 
pose of my effects as I had directed in my will — one-half 
of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped 
to England. 

In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my 
effects and keep up my plantation. Had I used half 
as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, 


Robinson Crusoe 


47 


and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done 
and not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from 
so prosperous an undertaking — leaving all the probable 
views of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage 
to sea, attended with all its common hazards, to say noth- 
ing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes 
to myself. 

But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of 
my fancy rather than my reason. And accordingly, the 
i ship being fitted out and the cargo furnished, and all 
things done as by agreement by my partners in the voy- 
j age, I went on board in an evil hour, the ist of Septem- 
ber, 1659, being the same day eight year that I went from 
my father and mother at Hull in order to act the rebel to 
their authority and the fool to my own interest. 

Our ship was about 120 ton burthen; carried six guns 
and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and my- 
self. We had on board no large cargo of goods, except of 
such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes — 
such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles, espe- 
cially little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and 
the like. 

The same day I went on board we set sail, standing 
away to the northward upon our own coast, with design to 
stretch over for the African coast when they came about 
10 or 12 degrees of northern latitude; which, it seems, 
was the manner of their course" in those days. We had 
very good weather, only excessively hot, all the way upon 
our own coast, till we came the height of Cape St. Au- 
gustino ; from whence, keeping farther off at sea, we lost 
sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the Isle 
Fernand de Noronha, holding our course northeast by 
north, and leaving those isles on the east. In this course 
we passed the line in about twelve days’ time ; and were by 


48 


The Life and Adventures of 


our last observation in 7 degrees 22 minutes northern lat- 
itude, when a violent tornado or hurricane took us quitd 
out of our knowledge. It began from the southeast, came isl 
about to the northwest, and then settled into the north] )t 
east ; from whence it blew in such a terrible manner that k 
for twelve days together we could do nothing but driveJ a 
and scudding away before it, let it carry us whither ever 
fate and the fury of the winds directed. And during these 
twelve days I need not say that I expected every day to 
be swallowed up ; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect 
to save their lives. 

In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, 
one of our men died of the calenture, and one man and 
the boy washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the 
weather abating a little, the master made an observation si 
as well as he could, and found that he was in about 1 1 si 
degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longi- 
tude difference west from Cape St. Augustino ; so that he \ 
found he was gotten upon the coast of Guiana, or the ; 
north part of Brazil, beyond the River Amazones, toward 
that of the River Oronoque, commonly called the Great 
River, and began to consult with me what course he should i 
take, for the ship was leaky and very much disabled, and 
he was going directly back to the coast of Brazil. 

I was positively against that ; and looking over the ' 
charts of the sea-coast of America with him, we concluded 
there was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to ; 
till we came within the circle of the Carribbe Islands, and I 
therefore resolved to stand away for Barbadoes ; which, 
by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraught of the Bay or 
Gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in 
about fifteen days’ sail ; whereas we could not possibly 
make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some 
assistance both to our ship and to ourselves. 


Robinson Crusoe 


49 


With this design we changed our course, and steered away 
northwest by west, in order to reach some of our English 
islands, where I hoped for relief. But our voyage was 
otherwise determined; for, being in the latitude of 12 
degrees 18 minutes, a second storm came upon us, which 
carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and 
drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce, 
that had all our lives been saved as to the sea, we were 
rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever 
returning to our own country. 

In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of 
our men early in the morning cried out “ Land ! ” and we 
had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out in hopes of 
seeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship 
struck upon a sand, and in a moment, her motion being so 
stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we 
expected we should all have perished immediately, and we 
were immediately driven into our close quarters to shelter 
us from the very foam and spray of the sea. 

It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like 
condition to describe or conceive the consternation of men 
in such circumstances. We knew nothing where we were, 
or upon what land it was we were driven, whether an 
island or the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited ; and 
as the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less 
than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the 
ship hold many minutes without breaking in pieces, unless 
the winds by a kind of miracle should turn immediately 
about. In a word, we sat looking one upon another, and 
expecting death every moment, and every man acting 
accordingly as preparing for another world, for there was 
little or nothing more for us to do in this. That which 
was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, 
was that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did not 


50 The Life and Adventures of 

break yet, and that the master said the wind began to 
abate. 

Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, 
yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and stick- 
ing too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a 
dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to 
think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had a 
boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first 
staved by dashing against the ship’s rudder, and in the 
next place she broke away, and either sunk or was driven 
off to sea ; so there was no hope from her. We had 
another boat on board ; but how to get her off into the 
sea was a doubtful thing. However, there was no room 
to debate, for we fancied the ship would break in pieces 
every minute, and some told us she was actually broken 
already. 

In this distress the mate of our vessel lays hold of the 
boat, and with the help of the rest of the men, they got 
her slung over the ship’s side, and getting all into her, let 
go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to 
God’s mercy and the wild sea : for though the storm was 
abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadfully high upon 
the shore, and might well be called “ den wild zee,” as the 
Dutch call the sea in a storm. 

And now our case was very dismal indeed ; for we all 
saw plainly that the sea went so high that the boat could 
not live, and that we should be inevitably drowned. As to 
making sail, we had none ; nor, if we had, could we have 
done anything with it : so we worked at the oar towards 
the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to exe- 
cution ; for we all knew that when the boat came nearer 
the shore she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the 
breach of the sea. However, we committed our souls to 
God in the most earnest manner, and the wind driving us 


Robinson Crusoe 


5 1 

towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our 
own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land. 

What the shore was — whether rock or sand, whether 
steep or shoal — we knew not ; the only hope that could 
rationally give us the least shadow of expectation, was if 
we might happen into some bay or gulf, or the mouth of 
some river, where by great chance we might have run our 
boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made 
smooth water. But there was nothing of this appeared ; 
but as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land 
looked more frightful than the sea. 

After we had rowed or rather driven about a league and 
a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, 
came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the 
coup-de-grace. In a word, it took us with such a fury, that 
it overset the boat at once, and separating us as well from 
the boat as from one another, gave us not time hardly to 
say, O God ! for we were all swallowed up in a moment. 

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I 
felt when I sunk into the water ; for though I swim very 
well, yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so as 
to draw breath, till that a wave, having driven me or rather 
carried me a vast way on towards the shore, and having 
spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost 
dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had so 
much presence of mind as well as breath left that, seeing 
myself nearer the mainland than I expected, I got upon 
my feet, and endeavored to make on towards the land as 
fast as I could before another wave should return and 
take me up again. But I soon found it was impossible to 
avoid it ; for I saw the sea come after me as high as a 
great hill, and as furious as an enemy which I had no 
means or strength to contend with. My business was to 
hold my breath and rise myself upon the water if I could, 


5 2 


The Life and Adventures of 


and so by swimming to preserve my breathing and pilot 
myself towards the shore if possible; my great concern 
now being that the sea, as it would carry me a great way 
towards the shore when it came on, might not carry 
me back again with it when it gave back towards the 
sea. 

The wave that came upon me again buried me at once 
twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body; and I could 
feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness 
towards the shore a very great way ; but I held my breath, 
and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my 
might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath, 
when, as I felt myself rising up, so to my immediate relief 
I found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of 
the water ; and though it was not two seconds of time that ; 
I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me 
breath and new courage. I was covered again with water 
a good while, but not so long but I held it out ; and find- 
ing the water had spent itself and began to return, I struck 1 
forward against the return of the waves, and felt ground j 
again with my feet. I stood still a few moments to recover 
breath, and till the water went from me, and then took to 
my heels and ran with what strength I had farther towards 
the shore. But neither would this deliver me from the 
fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me again, and 
twice more I was lifted up by the waves and carried for- 
wards as before, the shore being very flat. 

The last time of these two had well near been fatal to ! 
me ; for the sea having hurried me along as before, landed 
me, or rather dashed me against a piece of a rock, and that 
with such force, as it left me senseless, and indeed help- 
less, as to my own deliverance : for the blow taking my 
side and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of my 
body, and had it returned again immediately, I must have 


Robinson Crusoe 


53 


been strangled in the water ; but I recovered a little before 
the return of the waves, and seeing I should be covered 
again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of 
the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, till the 
wave went back. Now as the waves were not so high as 
at first, being near land, I held my hold till the wave 
abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me 
so near the shore, that the next wave, though it went over 
me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away ; 
and the next run I took I got to the mainland, where, to 
my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore 
and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger, and 
quite out of the reach of the water. 

I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look 
up and thank God that my life was saved in a case wherein 
there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope. 
I believe it is impossible to express to the life what the 
ecstasies and transports of the soul are when it is so saved, 
as I may say, out of the very grave ; and I do not wonder 
now at that custom, namely, that when a malefactor, who 
has the halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to 
be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him — I say, 
I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let 
him blood that very moment they tell him of it, that the 
surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart 
and overwhelm him : — 

“For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.” 

I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and 
my whole being, as I may say, wrapped up in the contem- 
plation of my deliverance, making a thousand gestures and 
motions which I cannot describe, reflecting upon all my 
comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be 
one soul saved but myself ; for, as for them, I never saw 


54 


The Life and Adventures of 




them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their 
hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows. 

I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when the breach 
and froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it 
lay so far off, and considered, “ Lord,, how was it possible 
I could get on shore ? ” 

After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part 
of my condition, I began to look round me to see what 
kind of place I was in, and what was next to be done, 
and I soon found my comforts abate, and that in a word I 
had a dreadful deliverance; for I was wet, had no clothes 
to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort 
me, neither did I see any prospect before me but that of 
perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts. 
And that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that 
I had no weapon either to hunt and kill any creature, for 
my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other crea- 
ture that might desire to kill me for theirs ; — in a word, I 
had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a lit- 
tle tobacco in a box. This was all my provision, and this 
threw me into terrible agonies of mind, and for a while I 
ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I 
began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my 
lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country, see- 
ing at night they always come abroad for their prey. 

All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time 
was, to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, 
which grew near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, 
and consider the next day what death I should die ; for as 
yet I saw no prospect of life. I walked about a furlong 
from the shore to see if I could find any fresh water to 
drink, which I did, to my great joy ; and having drunk, 
and put a little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, I 
went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavored to 


'pi; 

an 

de 

si\ 

as : 


w; 


Robinson Crusoe 


55 



place myself so as that if I should sleep I might not fall; 
and having cut me a short stick like a truncheon for my 
defence, I took up my lodging, and having been exces- 
sively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably 
as, I believe, few could have done in my condition, and 
found myself the most refreshed with it that I think I ever 
was on such an occasion. 


“ 1 WAS NOW LANDED." 


[Sec page 53 


56 


The Life and Adventures of 


IV. Crusoe swims to the ship and constructs 
a raft — He makes twelve trips to the 
ship , and strips it of its contents — The 
vessel is driven to sea and broken up — 
He suiveys the land — It is an island 
and uninhabited — Sees birds, a wild 
cat, and goats — He builds and fortifies 
his dwelling-place. 

When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and 
the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as 
before ; but that which surprised me most was, that the 
ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay 
by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as 
far as the rock which I first mentioned, where I had been 
so bruised by the dashing me against it ; this being within 
about a mile from the shore where I was, and the ship 
seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on board, 
that at least I might have some necessary things for my 
use. 

When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I 
looked about me again, and the first thing I found was the 
boat, which lay as the wind and the sea had tossed her up 
upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. I 
walked as far as I could upon the shore to have got to 
her, but found a neck or inlet of water between me and 
the boat which was about half a mile broad ; so I came 
back for the present, being more intent upon getting at 
the ship, where I hoped to find something for my present 
subsistence. 

A little after noon I found the sea very calm and the 


Robinson Crusoe 


57 


tide ebbed so far out that I could come within a quarter of 
a mile of the ship. And here I found a fresh renewing of 
my grief ; for I saw evidently that if we had kept on board 
we had been all safe — that is to say, we had all got safe 
on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be left 
entirely destitute of all comfort and company as I now was. 
This forced tears from my eyes again, but as there was 
little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the 
ship ; so I pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot 
to extremity, and took the water. But when I came to 
the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how to get 
on board ; for as she lay aground and high out of the 
water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. 
I swam round her twice, and the second time I spied a 
small piece of rope, which I wondered I did not see at 
first, hang down by the fore-chains so low as that with great 
difficulty I got hold of it, and by the help of that rope got 
up into the forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the 
ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold, 
but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or 
rather earth, and her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, 
and her head low almost to the water. By this means all 
her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry ; 
for you may be sure my first work was to search and to 
see what was spoiled and what was free. And first I 
found that all the ship’s provisions were dry and untouched 
by the water, and being very well disposed to eat, I went 
to the bread-room and filled my pockets with biscuits, and 
ate as I went about other things, for I had no time to 
lose. I also found some rum in the great cabin, of which 
I took a large dram, and which I had indeed need enough 
of to spirit me for what was before me. Now I wanted 
nothing but a boat to furnish myself with many things 
which I foresaw would be very necessary to me. 


58 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to 
be had, and this • extremity roused my application. We 
had several spare yards, and two or three large spars of 
wood, and a spare top-mast or two in the ship. I resolved 
to fall to work with these, and flung as many of them 
overboard as I could manage of their weight, tying every 
one with a rope that they might not drive away. When 
this was done, I went down the ship’s side, and pulling 
them to me, I tied four of them fast together at both ends 
as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or 
three short pieces of plank upon them crossways, I found 
I could walk upon it very well, but that it was not able to 
bear any great weight, the pieces being too light. So I 
went to work, and with the carpenter’s saw I cut a spare 
top-mast into three lengths, and added them to my raft, 
with a great deal of labor and pains ; but hope of furnish- 
ing myself with necessaries encouraged me to go beyond 
what I should have been able to have done upon another 
occasion. 

My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable 
weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how 
to preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea. 
But I was not long considering this. I first laid all the 
planks or boards upon it that I could get, and having con- 
sidered well what I most wanted, I first got three of the 
seamen’s chests, which I had broken open and emptied, 
and lowered them down upon my raft. The first of these 
I filled with provisions — namely, bread, rice, three Dutch 
cheeses, five pieces of dried goat’s flesh, which we lived 
much upon, and a little remainder of European corn which 
had been laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea 
with us ; but the fowls were killed. There had been some 
barley and wheat together, but to my great disappointment 
I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. 






6o 


The Life and Adventures of 


As for liquors, I found several cases of bottles belonging « 
to our skipper, in which were some cordial waters, and in l 
all about five or six gallons of rack. These I stowed by ii 
themselves, there being no need to put them into the chest, c 
nor no room for them. While I was doing this I found t 
the tide began to flow, though very calm, and I had the \ 
mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I f 
had left on shore upon the sand, swim away ; as for my { 
breeches, which were only linen and open-kneed, I swam ( 
on board in them and my stockings. However, this put i 
me upon rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough, 1 
but took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had 
other things which my eye was more upon — as, first, tools ' 
to work with on shore, and it was after long searching that 
I found out the carpenter’s chest, which was indeed a very 
useful prize to me, and much more valuable than a ship 
loading of gold would have been at that time. I got it 
down to my raft even whole as it was, without losing time 
to look into it, for I knew in general what it contained. 

My next care was for some ammunition and arms. 
There were two very good fowling-pieces in the great 
cabin, and two pistols ; these I secured first, with some 
powder-horns, and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty 
swords. I knew there were three barrels of powder in the 
ship, but I knew not where our gunner had stowed them ; 
but with much search I found them, two of them dry and 
good, the third had taken water. Those two I got to my 
raft with the arms ; and now I thought myself pretty well I 
freighted, and began to think how I should get to shore 
with them, having neither sail, oar, nor rudder, and the 
least capful of wind would have overset all my navi- 
gation. 

I had three encouragements — first, a smooth calm sea; 
second, the tide rising and setting in to the shore ; third, 


Robinson Crusoe 


61 


what little wind there was blew me towards the land. 
And thus, having found two or three broken oars belong- 
ing to the boat, and besides the tools which were in the 
chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a hammer, and with 
this cargo I put to sea. For a mile or thereabouts my raft 
went very well, only that I found it drive a little distant 
from the place where I had landed before; by which I 
perceived that there was some indraught of the water, and 
consequently I hoped to find some creek or river there, 
which I might make use of as a port to get to land with 
my cargo. 

As I imagined, so it was. There appeared before me a 
little opening of the land, and I found a strong current of 
the tide set into it ; so I guided my raft as well as I could 
to keep in the middle of the stream. But here I had like 
to have suffered a second shipwreck, which if I had, I 
think verily would have broken my heart; for, knowing 
nothing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it 
upon a shoal, and not being aground at the qther end, it 
wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards 
that end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water. I 
did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to 
keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the raft 
with all my strength, neither durst I stir from the posture 
I was in, but holding up the chests with all my might, 
stood in that manner near half an hour, in which time the 
rising of the water brought me a little more upon a level ; 
and a little after, the water still rising, my raft floated 
again, and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the 
channel, and then driving up higher, I at length found 
myself in the mouth of a little river, with land on both 
sides, and a strong current or tide running up. I looked 
on both sides for a proper place to get to shore, for I was 
not willing to be driven too high up the river, hoping in 


6 2 


The Life and Adventures of 


time to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place 
myself as near the coast as I could. 

At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the 
creek, to which with great pain and difficulty I guided my 
raft, and at last got so near as that, reaching ground with 
my oar, Lcould thrust her directly in. But here I had like 
to have dipped all my cargo in the sea again ; for that 
shore lying pretty steep — that is to say, sloping — there 
was no place to land, but where one end of my float if it 
ran on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink lower 
as before, that it would endanger my cargo again. Ail 
that I could do was to wait till the tide was at the highest, 
keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor to hold the 
side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of ground, 
which I expected the water would flow over ; and so it did. 
As soon as I found water enough — for my raft drew 
about a foot of water — I thrust her on upon that flat 
piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her by 
sticking my two broken oars into the ground, one on one 
side near one end, and one on the other side near the 
other end ; and thus I lay till the water ebbed away, and 
left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore. 

My next work was to view the country, and seek a 
proper place for my habitation, and where to stow my 
goods to secure them from whatever might happen. 
Where I was I yet knew not, whether on the continent or 
on an island, whether inhabited or not inhabited, whether 
in danger of wild beasts or not. There was a hill not 
above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, 
and which seemed to overtop some other hills which lay 
as in a ridge from it northward. I took out one of the 
fowling-pieces and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder, 
and thus armed I travelled for discovery up to the top of 
that hill, where, after I had with great labor and difficulty 


Robinson Crusoe 


6 3 

got to the top, I saw my fate to my great affliction — 
namely, that I was in an island environed every way with 
the sea, no land to be seen, except some rocks which lay 
a great way off, and two small islands, less than this, which 
lay about three leagues to the west. 

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as 
I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild 
beasts — of whom, however, I saw none ; yet I saw abun- 
dance of fowls, but knew not their kinds, neither when I 
killed them could I tell what was fit for food, and what not. 
At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw 
sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe 
it was the first gun that had been fired there since the 
creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, but from all 
the parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number 
of fowls of many sorts, making a confused screaming, and 
crying every one according to his usual note ; but not one 
of them of any kind that I knew. As for the creature I 
killed, I took it to be a kind of hawk, its color and beak 
resembling it, but had no talons or claws more than com- 
mon ; its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing. 

Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, 
and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took 
me up the rest of that day. And what to do with myself 
at night I knew not, nor indeed where to rest ; for I was 
afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but some 
wild beast might devour me, though, as I afterwards found, 
there was really no need for those fears. 

However, as well as I could, I barricadoed myself round 
with the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, 
and made a kind of hut for that night’s lodging. As for 
food, I yet saw not which way to supply myself,- except 
that I had seen two or three creatures like hares run out 
of the wood where I shot the fowl. 


6 4 The Life and Adventures of 

I now began to consider that I might yet get a great 
many things out of the ship which would be useful to me, 
and particularly some of the rigging and sails, and such 
other things as might come to land; and I resolved to 
make another voyage on board the vessel, if possible ; and 
as I knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily 
break her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things 
apart, till I got everything out of the ship that I could get. 
Then I called a council — that is to say, in my thoughts — 
whether I should take back the raft; but this appeared 
impracticable. So I resolved to go as before, when the 
tide was down ; and I did so, only that I stripped before I 
went from my hut, having nothing on but a checkered 
shirt, and a pair of linen drawers, and a pair of pumps on 
my feet. 

I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a 
second raft ; and having had experience of the first, I 
neither made this so unwieldy nor loaded it so hard, but 
yet I brought away several things very useful to me. At 
first, in the carpenter’s stores, I found two or three bags 
full of nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two 
of hatchets, and, above all, that most useful thing called a 
grind-stone. All these I secured together, with several 
things belonging to the gunner, particularly two or three 
iron crows, and two barrels of musket bullets, seven mus- 
kets, and another fowling-piece, with some small quantity 
of powder more, a large bag full of small shot, and a great 
roll of sheet lead. But this last was so heavy I could not 
hoist it up to get it over the ship’s side. 

Besides these things, I took all the men’s clothes that 
I could find, and a spare fore-topsail, a hammock and 
some bedding; and with this I loaded my second raft, 
and brought them all safe on shore, to my very great 
comfort. 


Robinson Crusoe 


65 

I was under some apprehensions during my absence 
from the land that at least my provisions might be de- 
voured on shore ; but when I came back I found no sign 
of any visitor, only there sat a creature like a wild cat 
upon one of the chests, which, when I came toward it, ran 
away a little distance, and then stood still. She sat very 
composed and unconcerned, and looked full in my face, as 
if she had a mind to be acquainted with me. I presented 
my gun at her, but as she did not understand it, she was 
perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away. 
Upon which I tossed her a bit of biscuit — though, by the 
way, I was not very free of it, for my store was not great. 
However, I spared her a bit, I say, and she went to it, 
smelled of it, and ate it, and looked, as pleased, for more ; 
but I thanked her, and could spare no more. So she 
marched off. 

Having got my second cargo on shore, though I was 
fain to open the barrels of powder, and bring them by par- 
' cels — for they were too heavy, being large casks — I went 
to work to make me a little tent with the sail and some 
poles which I cut for that purpose ; and into this tent I 
brought everything that I knew would spoil either with 
rain or sun, and I piled all the empty chests and casks 
up in a circle round the tent, to fortify it from any sudden 
attempt either from man or beast. 

When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the 
tent with some boards within, and an empty chest set up 
on end without, and spreading one of the beds upon the 
ground, laying my two pistols just at my head, and my 
gun at length by me, I went to bed for the first time, and 
slept very quietly all night, for I was very weary and 
heavy; for the night before I had slept but little, and had 
labored very hard all day, as well to fetch all those things 
from the ship as to get them on shore. 


66 


The Life and Adventures of 


I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever 
were laid up, I believe, for one man ; but I was not satis- 
fied still, for while the ship sat upright in that posture, I 
thought I ought to get everything out of her that I could ; 
so every day at low water I went on board, and brought 
away some thing or other. But particularly the third 
time I went I brought away as much of the rigging as I 
could, as also all the small ropes and rope-twine I could 
get, with a piece of spare canvas, which was to mend the 
sails upon occasion, the barrel of wet gunpowder; in a 
word, I brought away all the sails first and last, only that 
I was fain to cut them in pieces, and bring as much at a 
time as I could, for they were no more useful to be sails, 
but as mere canvas only. 

But that which comforted me more still was, that at last 
of all, after I had made five or six such voyages as these, 
and thought I had nothing more to expect from the ship 
that was worth my meddling with — I say, after all this, 
I found a great hogshead of bread, and three large run- 
lets of rum or spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel of 
fine flour. This was surprising to me, because I had 
given over expecting any more provisions, except what 
was spoiled by the water. I soon emptied the hogshead 
of that bread, and wrapped it up parcel by parcel in pieces 
of the sails, which I cut out ; and in a word, I got all this 
safe on shore also. 

The next day I made another voyage, and now having 
plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand 
out, I began with the cables ; and cutting the great cable 
into pieces such as I could move, I got two cables and a 
hawser on shore, with all the iron-work I could get ; and 
having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizzen-yard, 
and everything I could to make a large raft, I loaded it 
with all those heavy goods, and came away. But my good 


Robinson Crusoe 


67 


luck began now to leave me ; for this raft was so unwieldy 
and so overloaden, that after I was entered the little cove 
where I had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to 
guide it so handily as I did the other, it overset, and threw 
me and all my cargo into the water. As for myself it was 
no great harm, for I was near the shore; but as to my 
cargo, it was great part of it lost, especially the iron, 
which I expected would have been of great use to me. 
However, when the tide was out, I got most of the pieces 
of cable ashore and some of the iron, though with infinite 
labor : for I was fain to dip for it into the water, a work 
which fatigued me very much. After this I went every 
day on board, and brought away what I could get. 

I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been 
eleven times on board the ship, in which time I had 
brought away all that one pair of hands could well be sup- 
posed capable to bring ; though I believe verily, had the 
calm weather held, I should have brought away the whole 
ship piece by piece. But preparing the twelfth time to go 
on board, I found the wind begin to rise. However, at low 
water I went on board ; and though I thought I had rum- 
maged the cabin so effectually as that nothing more could 
be found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in 
one of which I found two or three razors and one pair of 
large scissors, with some ten or a dozen of good knives 
and forks; in another I found about thirty-six pounds 
value in money, some European coin, some Brazil, some 
pieces of eight, some gold, some silver. 

I smiled to myself at the sight of this money. “ O 
drug ! ” said I aloud, “ what art thou good for ? Thou art 
not worth to me, no not the taking off of the ground ; one 
of those knives is worth all this heap. I have no manner 
of use for thee ; even remain where thou art, and go to the 
bottom as a creature whose life is not worth saving.” How- 


68 


The Life and Adventures of 


ever, upon second thoughts, I took it away, and wrapping 
all this in a piece of canvas, I began to think of making 
another raft ; but while I was preparing this, I found the 
sky overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter 
of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It pres- 
ently occurred to me that it was in vain to pretend to 
make a raft with the wind off shore, and that it was my ( 
business to be gone before the tide of flood began, other- 
wise I might not be able to reach the shore at all. Accord- 
ingly I let myself down into the water, and swam across 
the channel which lay between the ship and the sands, 
and even that with difficulty enough, partly with the weight 
of the things I had about me, and partly the roughness of 
the water, for the wind rose very hastily, and before it was 
quite high water it blew a storm. 

But I was gotten home to my little tent, where I lay with 
all my wealth about me very secure. It blew very hard all 
that night ; and in the morning when I looked out, behold, I 
no more ship was to be seen ! I was a little surprised, but 
recovered myself with this satisfactory reflection, namely, 
that I had lost no time nor abated any diligence to get 
everything out of her that could be useful to me, and that 
indeed there was little left in her that I was able to bring 
away, if I had had more time. 

I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of 
anything out of her, except what might drive on shore I 
from her wreck, as indeed divers pieces of her afterwards 
did ; but those things were of small use to me. 

My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing 
myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild 
beasts, if any were in the island ; and I had many thoughts 
of the method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling to 
make, whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or a 
tent upon the earth. And, in short, I resolved upon both, 


Robinson Crusoe 69 

' the manner and description of which it may not be improper 
> to give an account of. 

I soon found the place I was in was not for my settle- 
ment, particularly because it was upon a low moorish 
ground near the sea, and I believed could not be whole- 
1 some, and more particularly, because there was no fresh 
water near it ; so I resolved to find a more healthy and 
more convenient spot of ground. 

I consulted several things in my situation which I found 
would be proper for me. First, health, and fresh water I 
just now mentioned. Secondly, shelter from the heat of 
the sun. Thirdly, security from ravenous creatures, 
whether men or beasts. Fourthly, a view to the sea, that 
if God sent any ship in sight I might not lose any advan- 
tage for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to ban- 
ish all my expectation yet. 

In search of a place proper for this, I found a little 
plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this 
little plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could 
come down upon me from the top. On the side of this 
rock there was a hollow place worn a little way in like the 
entrance or door of a cave ; but there was not really any 
cave or way into the rock at all. 

On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I 
resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was not above an 
hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like 
a green before my door, and at the end of it descended 
irregularly every way down into the low grounds by the 
sea-side. It was on the north-northwest side of the hill, so 
that I was sheltered from the heat every day till it came to • 
a west and by south sun, or thereabouts, which in those 
' countries is near the setting. 

Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle before the 
hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi- 


70 


The Life and Adventures of 


diameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter 
from its beginning and ending. 

In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, 
driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like 
piles, the biggest end being out of the ground about five 
foot and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows 
did not stand above six inches from one another. 

Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the 
ship, and laid them in rows one upon another within the 
circle, between these two rows of stakes, up to the top, 
placing other stakes in the inside, leaning against them, 
about two foot and a half high, like a spur to a post ; and 
this fence was so strong that neither man nor beast could 
get into it or over it. This cost me a great deal of time 
and labor, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring 
them to the place, and drive them into the earth. 

The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door, 
but by a short ladder to go over the top ; which ladder, 
when I was in, I lifted over after me. And so I was com- 
pletely fenced in and fortified, as I thought, from all the 
world, and consequently slept secure in the night, which 
otherwise I could not have done ; though, as it appeared 
afterward, there was no need of all this caution from the 
enemies that I apprehended danger from. 

Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labor, I carried 
all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, 
of which you have the account above. And I made me a 
large tent, which, to preserve me from the rains that in 
one part of the year are very violent there, I made double 
— namely one smaller tent within, and one larger tent 
above it, and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin 
which I had saved among the sails. 

And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I 
had brought on shore, but in a hammock ; which was 


Robinson Crusoe 


7 1 

indeed a very good one, and belonged to the mate of the 
ship. 

Into this tent I brought all my provisions and every- 
thing that would spoil by the wet; and having thus en- 
closed all my goods I made up the entrance, which till 
now I had left open, and so passed and repassed, as I said, 
by a short ladder. 

When I had done this, I began to work my way into the 
rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug 
down out through my tent, I laid them up within my fence 
in the nature of a terrace, that so it raised the ground 
within about a foot and a half ; and thus I made me a 
cave just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to 
my house. 

It cost me much labor and many days before all these 
things were brought to perfection, and therefore I must go 
back to some other things which took up some of my 
thoughts. At the same time it happened after I had laid 
my scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the 
cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick dark cloud, 
a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that a 
great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. I 
was not so much surprised with the lightning as I was 
with a thought which darted into my mind as swift as the 
lightning itself — O my powder ! My very heart sank 
within me when I thought that at one blast all my powder 
might be destroyed, on which not my defence only, but 
the providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended. 
I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger, 
though had the powder taken fire, I had never known who 
had hurt me. 

Such impression did this make upon me, that after the 
storm was over I laid aside all my works, my building and 
fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes to 


72 


The Life and Adventures of 


separate the powder and keep it a little and a little in a 
parcel, in hope that whatever might come it might not all 
take fire at once, and to keep it so apart that it should not 
be possible to make one part fire another. I finished this 
work in about a fortnight ; and I think my powder, which 
in all was about two hundred and forty pounds weight, 
was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. As to the 
barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger 
from that; so I placed it in my new cave, which in my 
fancy I called my kitchen, and the rest I hid up and down 
in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, 
marking very carefully where I laid it. 

In the interval of time while this was doing I went out 
once at least every day with my gun as well to divert my- 
self as to see if I could kill anything fit for food, and as 
near as I could to acquaint myself with what the island 
produced. The first time I went out I presently discov- 
ered that there were goats in the island — which was a 
great satisfaction to me ; but then it was attended with 
this misfortune to me, namely, that they were so shy, so 
subtile, and so swift of foot, that it was the difficultest 
thing in the world to come at them. But I was not dis- 
couraged at this, not doubting but I might now and then 
shoot one, as it soon happened ; for after I had found their 
haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner for them : I 
observed if they saw me in the valleys, though they were 
upon the rocks, they would run away as in a terrible fright; 
but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I was upon 
the rocks, they took no notice of me ; from whence I con- 
cluded that by the position of their optics their sight was 
so directed downward that they did not readily see objects 
that were above them. So afterward I took this method, 
I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and 
then had frequently a fair mark. The first shot I made 


Robinson Crusoe 


73 


i among these creatures I killed a she-goat which had a little 
i kid by her which she gave suck to, which grieved me 
heartily. But when the old one fell the kid stood stock- 
i still by her till I came and took her up ; and not only so, 
i but when I carried the old one with me upon my shoulders, 

, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure : upon which I 
laid down the dam and took the kid in my arms, and car- 
ried it over my pale, in hopes to have it bred up tame; 
but it would not eat, so I was forced to kill it and eat it 
myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while, 
for I ate sparingly, and saved my provisions (my bread 
especially) as much as possibly I could. 

Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely 
necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to 
burn ; and what I did for that, as also how I enlarged my 
cave and what conveniences I made, I shall give a full 
account of in its place. But I must first give some little 
account of myself and of my thoughts about living, which 
it may well be supposed were not a few. 

I had a dismal prospect of my condition ; for as I was not 
cast away upon that island without being driven, as is said, 
by a violent storm quite out of the course of our intended 
voyage, and a great way, namely, some hundreds of leagues, 
out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind I had 
great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven 
that in this desolate place and in this desolate manner I 
should end my life. The tears would run plentifully down 
my face when I made these reflections ; and sometimes I 
would expostulate with myself why Providence should thus 
completely ruin its creatures and render them so abso- 
lutely miserable, so without help abandoned, so entirely 
depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful 
for such a life. 

But something always returned swift upon me to check 


74 


The Life and Adventures of 


these thoughts and to reprove me; and particularly one 
day, walking with my gun in my hand by the sea-side, I 
was very pensive upon the subject of my present condition, 
when reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other 
way, thus : Well, you are in a desolate condition it is true, 
but pray remember, where are the rest of you ? Did you 
not come eleven of you into the boat, — where are the ten ? 
Why were not they saved and you lost ? Why were you 
singled out? Is it better to be here or there? — and then 
I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with 
the good that is in them, and with what worse attends 
them. 

Then it occurred to me again how well I was furnished 
for my subsistence, and what would have been my case if 
it had not happened, which was an hundred thousand to 
one, that the ship floated from the place where she first 
struck, and was driven so near to the shore that I had time 
to get all these things out of her. What would have been 
my case if I had been to have lived in the condition in 
which I at first came on shore, without necessaries of life, 
or necessaries to supply and procure them ? Particularly, 
said I aloud (though to myself), what should I have done 
without a gun, without ammunition ; without any tools to 
make anything, or to work with ; without clothes, bedding, 
a tent or any manner of covering ; and that now I had all 
these to a sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to pro- 
vide myself in such a manner, as to live without my gun 
when my ammunition was spent ; so that I had a tolerable 
view of subsisting without any want as long as I lived : for 
I considered from the beginning how I would provide for 
the accidents that might happen, and for the time that 
was to come, even not only after my ammunition should 
be spent, but even after my health or strength should 
decay. 


Robinson Crusoe 


75 


I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammu- 
nition being destroyed at one blast — I mean my powder 
being blown up by lightning — and this made the thoughts 
of it so surprising to me when it lightened and thundered, 
as I observed just now. 

And now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a 
scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of 
in the world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and 
continue it in its order. 



“ WHEN I WAKED IT WAS BROAD DAY.” [See page 56 




76 


The Life and Adventures of 


V. Crusoe commences his calendar — and, 
reviewing his position , finds he has 
much to be thankful for — How he 
made the furniture for his house — 
The journal. 

It was, by my account, the 30th of September when, in 
the manner as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid 
island, when the sun being, to us, in its autumnal equinox, 
was almost just over my head; for I reckoned myself, by 
observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutes 
north of the line. 

After I had been there about ten or twelve days it came 
into my thoughts that 1 should lose my reckoning of time 
for want of books and pen and ink, and should even forget 
the Sabbath days from the working days ; but to prevent 
this, I cut it with my knife upon a large post, in capital 
letters, and making it into a great cross, I set it up on the 
shore where I first landed — namely, I came on shore 
here on the 30TH of September 1659. Upon the sides 
of this square post I cut every day a notch with my knife, 
and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and 
every first day of the month as long again as that long one, 
and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and 
yearly reckoning of time. 

In the next place we are to observe, that among the 
many things which I brought out of the ship in the several 
voyages which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I got 
several things of less value, but not all less useful to me, 
which I omitted setting down before; as, in particular, 
pens, ink, and paper, several parcels in the captain’s, mate’s, 


Robinson Crusoe 


77 


gunner’s, and carpenter’s, keeping, three or four compasses, 
some mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, 
and books of navigation; all which I huddled together, 
whether I might want them or no. Also, I found three 
very good Bibles, which came to me in my cargo from 
England, and which I had packed up among my things ; 
some Portuguese books also, and among them two or three 
Popish prayer-books, and several other books ; all which I 
carefully secured. And I must not forget that we had in 
the ship a dog and two cats, of whose eminent history 
I may have occasion to say something in its place : for I 
carried both the cats with me ; and as for the dog, he 
jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to 
me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo, and 
was a trusty servant to me many years. I wanted nothing 
that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could 
make up to me ; I only wanted to have him talk to me, but 
that would not do. As I observed before, I found pen, 
ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost ; and 
I shall show that, while my ink lasted, I kept things very 
exact ; but after that was gone I could not, for I could not 
make any ink by any means that I could devise. 

And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, 
notwithstanding all that I had amassed together ; and of 
these, this of ink was one ; as also spade, pick-axe, and 
shovel, to dig or remove the earth ; needles, pins, and 
thread ; as for linen, I sqon learned to want that without 
much difficulty. 

This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily, 
and it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished 
my little pale or surrounded habitation. The piles or 
stakes, which were as heavy as I could well lift, were a 
long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and 
more by far in bringing home ; so that I spent sometimes 


78 


The Life and Adventures of 


two days in cutting and bringing home one of those posts, 
and a third day in driving it into the ground : for which 
purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last 
bethought myself of one of the iron crows ; which, how- 
ever, though I found it, yet it made driving those posts? 
or piles very laborious and tedious work. 

But what need I have been concerned at the tedious- 
ness of anything I had to do, seeing I had time enough 
to do it in, nor had I any other employment if that had 
been over, at least that I could foresee, except the rang- 
ing the island to seek for food, which I did more or less 
every day. 

I now began to consider seriously my condition, and 
the circumstance I was reduced to, and I drew up the 
state of my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them 
to any that were to come after me, for I was like to 
have but few heirs, as to deliver my thoughts from daily 
poring upon them, and afflicting my mind ; and as my 
reason began now to master my despondency, I began 
to comfort myself as well as I could, and to set the good 
against the evil, that I might have something to distin- 
guish my case from worse ; and I stated it very impar- 
tially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed 
against the miseries I suffered, thus : — 


Evil. 

I am cast on a horrible desolate 
island, void of all hope of recovery. 

I am singled out and separated, 
as it were, from all the world, to 
be miserable. 


I am divided from mankind, a 
solitaire, one banished from human 
society. 


Good. 

But I am alive, and not drowned, 
as all my ship’s company was. 

But I am singled out too, from 
all the ship’s crew to be spared 
from death ; and He that miracu- 
lously saved me from death can 
deliver me from this condition. 

But I am not starved and perish- 
ing on a barren place, affording no 
sustenance. 


Robinson Crusoe 


79 


* 


But I am in a hot climate, where, 
if I had clothes I could hardly wear 
them. 

But I am cast on an island where 
I see no wild beasts to hurt me, as 
I saw on the coast of Africa ; and 
what if I had been shipwrecked 
there ? 

But God wonderfully sent the 
ship in near enough to the shore, 
that I have gotten out so many 
necessary things as will either 
supply my wants, or enable me to 
supply myself even as long as I 
live. 

Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that 
there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, 
but there was something negative or something positive 
to be thankful for in it ; and let this stand as a direc- 
tion from the experience of the most miserable of all 
^conditions in this world, that we may always find in it 
something to comfort ourselves from, and to set in the 
description of good and evil, on the credit side of the 
account. 

Having now brought my mind a little to relish my 
condition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I 
could spy a ship ; I say, giving over these things, I began 
to apply myself to accommodate my way of living, and 
to make things as easy to me as I could. 

I have already described my habitation, which was a 
tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong 
pale of posts and cables ; but I might now rather call it 
a wall, for I raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, 
about two feet thick on the outside ; and after some time, 
I think it was a year and a half, I raised rafters from 


I have not clothes to cover me. 


I am without any defence or 
means to resist any violence of 
man or beast. 


I have no soul to speak to, or 
relieve me. 




8o 


The Life and Adventures of 


it leaning to the rock, and thatched or covered it with 
boughs of trees, and such things as I could get to keep 
out the rain, which I found at some times of the yearv 
very violent. 

I have already observed how I brought all my goods ! 
into this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind 
me ; but I must observe, too, that at first this was a con- 
fused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so 
they took up all my place. I had no room to turn my- 
self, so I set myself to enlarge my cave and works farther 
into the earth ; for it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded 
easily to the labor I bestowed on it : and so, when I found 
I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways 
to the right hand into the rock ; and then, turning to the 
right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to 
come out, on the outside of my pale or fortification. 

This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were, 
a back-way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave 
me room to stow my goods. 

And now I begin to apply myself to make such neces- 
sary things as I found I most wanted, as particularly a 
chair and a table ; for without these I was not able to 
enjoy the few comforts I had in the world — I could not 
write or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure 
without a table. 

So I went to work ; and here I must needs observe, that 
as reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, 
so by stating and squaring everything by reason, and by 
making the most rational judgment of things, every man 
may be in time master of every mechanic art. I had never 
handled a tool in my life, and yet in time, by labor, appli- 
cation, and contrivance, I found at last that I wanted 
nothing but I could have made it, especially if I had had 
tools ; however, I made abundance of things, even without 


Robinson Crusoe 


8 1 


tools, and some with no more tools than an adze and a 
hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, 
and that with infinite labor. For example, if I wanted a 
board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on 
an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with my 
axe, till I had brought it to be thin as a plank, and then 
dubb it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this method 
I could make but one board out of a whole tree, but this I 
had no remedy for but patience, any more than I had for 
the prodigious deal of time and labor which it took me 
up to make a plank or board. But my time or labor was 
little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as 
another. 

However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed 
above, in the first place, and this I did out of the short 
pieces of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship. 
But when I had wrought out some boards, as above, I 
made large shelves of the breadth of a foot and a half one 
over another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my 
tools, nails, and iron-work, and, in a word, to separate 
everything at large in their places, that I might come easily 
at them. I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to 
hang my guns and all things that would hang up. 

So that had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a 
general magazine of all necessary things ; and I had every- 
thing so ready at my hand that it was a great pleasure to 
me to see all my goods in such order, and especially to 
find my stock of all necessaries so great. 

And now it was when I began to keep a journal of every 
day’s employment — for indeed at first I was in too much 
hurry, and not only hurry as to labor, but in too much 
discomposure of mind — and my journal would have been 
full of many dull things. For example, I must have said 
thus : — September 30. After I got to shore and had es- 


82 


The Life and Adventures of 


caped drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my 
deliverance — having first vomited with the great quantity 
of salt water which had gotten into my stomach, and re- 
covering myself a little — I ran about the shore, wringing 
my hands and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my 
misery, and crying out I was undone, undone ! till, tired 
and faint, I was forced to lie down on the ground to repose, 
but durst not sleep for fear of bein£ devoured.” 

Some days after this, and after I had been on board the 
ship and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not 
forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain and look- j 
ing out to sea in hopes of seeing a ship, then fancy at a ! 
vast distance I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes 
of it, and then after looking steadily till I was almost blind, i 
lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus 
increase my misery by my folly. 

But having gotten over these things in some measure, 
and having settled my household stuff and habitation, made 
me a table and a chair, and all as handsome about me as I 
could, I began to keep my journal, of which I shall here 
give you the copy (though in it will be told all these par-i 
ticulars over again) as long as it lasted, for, having no morei 
ink, I was forced to leave it off. 

THE JOURNAL. 

September 30, 1659. I, poor, miserable Robinson Crusoe, 
being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, 
came on shore on this dismal unfortunate island, which I 
called the Island of Despair, all the rest of the ship’s 
company being drowned, and myself almost dead. 

All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself at! 
the dismal circumstances I was brought to — namely, I had 
neither food, house, clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to, 


Robinson Crusoe 


83 


, and, in despair of any relief, saw nothing but death before 
me — either that I should be devoured by wild beasts, 
r murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food, 
j At the approach of night I slept in a tree for fear of wild 
j creatures, but slept soundly though it rained all night. 

October 1. In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, 

’ the ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on 
shore again much nearer the island ; which as it was some 
t comfort, on one hand, for, seeing her sit upright, and not 
broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, I might get 
i on board and get some food and necessaries out of her for 
my relief ; so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the 
loss of my comrades, who, I imagined, if we had all stayed 
| on board, might have saved the ship, or at least that they 
would not have been all drowned as they were ; and that, 
had the men been saved, we might perhaps have built us 
a boat out of the ruins of the ship to have carried us to 
some other part of the world. I spent great part of this 
day in perplexing myself on these things ; but at length, 
seeing the ship almost dry, I went upon the sand as near 
as I could, and then swam on board ; this day also it con- 
tinued raining, though with no wind at all. 

From the 1st of October to the 24 th. All these days en- 
tirely spent in many several voyages to get all I could out 
of the ship, which I brought on shore, every tide of flood, 
upon rafts. Much rain also in these days, though with 
| some intervals of fair weather; but, it seems, this was the 
rainy season. 

October 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had 
got upon it ; but being in shoal water, and the things being 
chiefly heavy, I recovered many of them when the tide 
1 was out. 

- October 25. It rained all night and all day, with some 
gusts of wind, during which time the ship broke in pieces, 


1 


8 4 


The Life and Adventures of 


the wind blowing a little harder than before, and was no 
more to be seen, except the wreck of her, and that only at,i 
low water. I spent this day in covering and securing the j 
goods which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil ;v 
them. of 

October 26. I walked about the shore almost all day to 0 
find out a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned tq ie 
secure myself from an attack in the night either from wild is 
beasts or men. Towards night I fixed upon a proper place, 
under a rock, and marked out a semicircle for my encamp- 
ment, which I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or 
fortification made of double piles, lined within with cables 
and without with turf. 

From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carry- 
ing all my goods to my new habitation, though some part 
of the time it rain exceeding hard. j 

The 31st in the morning I went out into the island with 
my gun to see for some food, and discover the country, 
when I killed a she-goat, and her kid followed me home, 
which I afterwards killed also, because it would not feed. 

November 1. I set up my tent under a rock, and lay 
there for the first night, making it as large as I could with 
stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon. 

November 2. I set up all my chests and boards, and the 
pieces of timber which made my rafts, and with them 
formed a fence round me, a little within the place I had 
marked out for my fortification. 

November 3. I went out with my gun, and killed two 
fowls like ducks, which were very good food. In the, 
afternoon went to work to make me a table. 

November At, This morning I began to order my times 
of work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep and time 
of diversion — namely every morning I walked out with 
my gun for two or three hours if it did not rain, then em-| 


Robinson Crusoe 


85 

10 loyed myself to work till about eleven o’clock, then ate 
1 r hat I had to live on ; and from twelve to two I lay down 
ie 0 sleep, the weather being excessive hot; and then in the 
® vening to work again. The working part of this day and 
f the next were wholly employed in making my table ; 
0 or I was yet but a very sorry workman, though time and 

0 ecessity made me a complete natural mechanic soon after, 
! :S I believe it would do any one else. 

; November 5. This day went abroad with my gun and 
' ay dog, and killed a wild cat, her skin pretty soft, but her 
r lesh good for nothing. Every creature I killed I took off 
5 he skins and preserved them. Coming back by the sea- 
hore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls which I did not under- 
tand ; but was surprised and almost frightened with two 
>r three seals, which while I was gazing at, not well know- 
ng what they were, got into the sea, and escaped me for 
hat time. 

November 6. After my morning walk I went to work 
vith my table again, and finished it, though not to my 
iking; nor was it long before I learned to mend it. 

November 7. Now it began to be settled fair weather. 
The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the nth 
was Sunday), I took wholly up to make me a chair, and 
with much ado brought it to a tolerable shape, but never 
to please me ; and even in the making I pulled it in pieces 
several times. Note. — I soon neglected my keeping Sun- 
days ; for, omitting my mark for them on my post, I forgot 
which was which. 

November 13. This day it rained, which refreshed me 
exceedingly, and cooled the earth ; but it was accompanied 
with terrible thunder and lightning, which frightened me 
dreadfully for fear of my powder. As soon as it was over 

1 resolved to separate my stock of powder into as many 
little parcels as possible, that it might not be in danger. 


86 


The Life and Adventures of 


November 14, 15, 16. These three days I spent in making^ 
little square chests or boxes, which might hold about aj n 
pound, or two pound at most, of powder; and so putting f 
the powder in, I stowed it in places as secure and remot^' ro 
from one another as possible. On one of these three days^ 
I killed a large bird that was good to eat, but I know no% 
what to call it. fo 

November 17. This day I began to dig behind my tent 0 \ 
into the rock, to make room for my farther conveniency.i 0l 
Note. — Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work — j jj 
namely, a pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow or basket: 
So I desisted from my work, and began to consider how tc a , 
supply that want, and make me some tools. As for a j r 
pick-axe I made use of the iron crows, which were propei f ( 
enough though heavy. But the next thing was a shoved y 
or spade ; this was so absolutely necessary, that indeed 1 
could do nothing effectually without it. But what kind ol 
one to make I knew not. 

November 18. The next day, in searching the woods, 1 j 
found a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the Brazils t 
they call the iron tree, for its exceeding hardness. Ol 1 ■ 
this, with great labor and almost spoiling my axe, I cut a , 
piece, and brought it home too with difficulty enough, for 
it was exceeding heavy. 

The excessive hardness of the wood, and having nc^s 
other way, made me a long while upon this machine ; for 
I worked it effectually by little and little into the form ol f 
a shovel or spade, the handle exactly shaped like ours ir 
England, only that the broad part having no iron shod 
upon it at bottom, it would not last me so long. However 
it served well enough for the uses which I had occasion to 
put it to ; but never was a shovel, I believe, made aftei 
that fashion, or so long a-making. 

I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a wheel: 


Robinson Crusoe 


87 


5 barrow. A basket I could not make by any means, hav- 
1 ing no such things as twigs that would bend to make wicker 
5 |ware, at least none yet found out. And as to a wheelbar- 
J row, I fancied I could make all but the wheel, but that I 
5 had no notion of, neither did I know how to go about it ; 
t besides, I had no possible way to make the iron gudgeons 
for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in, so I gave it 
: over. And so, for carrying away the earth which I dug 
out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod, which the 
laborers carry mortar in when they serve the bricklayers. 

This was not so difficult to me as the making the shovel ; 
and yet this and the shovel, and the attempt which I made 
in vain to make a wheelbarrow, took me up no less than 
four days — I mean always excepting my morning walk 
with my gun, which I seldom failed, and very seldom failed 
also bringing home something fit to eat. 

November 23. My other work having now stood still 
because of my making these tools, when they were finished 
I went on, and working every day as my strength and 
time allowed, I spent eighteen days entirely in widening 
and deepening my cave, that it might hold my goods 
I commodiously. 

Note. — During all this time I worked to make this room 
or cave spacious enough to accommodate me as a ware- 
house or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar. 
As for my lodging, I kept to the tent, except that some- 
times, in the wet season of the year, it rained so hard that 
I could not keep myself dry ; which caused me afterwards 
to cover all my place within my pale with long poles in 
the form of rafters, leaning against the rock, and load 
them with flags and large leaves of trees like a thatch. 

December 10. I began now to think my cave or vault 
finished, when on a sudden (it seems I had made it too 
/large) a great quantity of earth fell down from the top and 


88 


The Life and Adventures of 


one side, so much that, in short, it frightened me; and 
not without reason too, for if I had been under it, I had 
never wanted a grave-digger. Upon this disaster I had a. 
great deal of work to do over again ; for I had the loose 
earth to carry out, and, which was of more importance, I 
had the ceiling to prop up, so that I might be sure no 
more would come down. 

December n. This day I went to work with it accord- 
ingly, and got two shores or posts pitched upright to the 
top, with two pieces of boards across over each post. 
This I finished the next day, and setting more posts up 
with boards, in about a week more I had the roof secured • 
and the posts, standing in rows, served me for partitions 
to part off my house. 

December 17. From this day to the 20th I placed | 
shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts to hang 
everything up that could be hung up; and now I began , 
to be m some order within doors. 

December 20. Now I carried everything into the cave i 
and began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces 
of boards, like a dresser, to order my victuals upon; but i, 
boards began to be very scarce with me. Also I made '! 
me another table. 

December 24. Much rain all night and all day No 
stirring out. J 


December 25. Rain all day. 

December 26. No rain, and the earth much cooler than 
betore and pleasanter. 

December 27^ Killed a young goat, and lamed another 
so at I caught it, and led it home in a string. When 1 
had it home I bound and splintered up its leg, which 
was broken. N.B. - 1 took such care of it that it lived, , 
and the leg grew well and as strong as ever; but by my 
nursing it so long it grew tame, and fed upon the little 


Robinson Crusoe 


89 

?reen at my door, and would not go away. This was the 
first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some 
tame creatures, that I might have food when my powder 
and shot was all spent 

December 28, 29, 30. Great heats and no breeze, so that 
there was no stirring abroad, except in the evening, for 
food. This time I spent in putting all my things in order 
within doors. 

January 1. Very hot still, but I went abroad early and 
late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. 

; This evening, going farther into the valleys which lay 
| towards the centre of the island, I found there was plenty 
Df goats, though exceeding shy and hard to come at. How- 
ever, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to hunt 
: them down. 

) January 2. Accordingly, the next day I went out with 
my dog, and set him upon the goats ; but I was mistaken, 
for they all faced about upon the dog, and he knew his 
I danger too well, for he would not come near them. 

January 3. I began my fence or wall, which, being still 
jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to 
| make very thick and strong. 

I NB . This wall being described before, I purposely 
omit what was said in the journal. It is sufficient to 
observe that I was no less time than from the 3rd of 
January to the 14th of April working, finishing, and 
| perfecting this wall, though it was no more than about 
twenty-four yards in length, being a half circle from 
j one place in the rock to another place about eight 
yards from it, the door of the cave being in the centre 
behind it. 


9 o 


The Life and Adventures of 


VI. Crusoe makes a lamp — Barley and 
rice grow up near his home — It ripens 
and he saves the grain for seed — An 
earthquake and a hurricane — The 
wreck , which had been partly broken 
up , buried in the sand , is thrown 
again near the shore — Finds a turtle 
and cooks it — Illness and a dream — 
Reflects on his present miseries and 
past conduct. 

All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering 
me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together; but I 
thought I should never be perfectly secure till this wall 
was finished. And it is scarce credible what inexpressible 
labor everything was done with, especially the bringing 
piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground, 
for I made them much bigger than I need to have done. 

When this wall was finished, and the outside double 
fenced with a turf wall raised up close to it, I persuaded 
myself that if any people were to come on shore there, 
they would not perceive anything like a habitation. And 
it was very well I did so, as may be observed hereafter upon 
a very remarkable occasion. 

During this time I made my rounds in the woods for 
game every day when the rain admitted me, and made fre- 
quent discoveries in these walks of something or other to my 
advantage. Particularly I found a kind of wild pigeons, 
who built not as wood-pigeons, in a tree, but rather as 
house-pigeons in the holes of the rocks ; and taking some 


Robinson Crusoe 


9 1 


young ones, I endeavored to breed them up tame, and 
did so ; but when they grew older they flew all away, 
which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them, for I 
had nothing to give them. However, I frequently found 
their nests, and got their young ones, which were very 
good meat. 

And now, in the managing my household affairs, I found 
myself wanting in many things, which I thought at first 
was impossible for me to make, as indeed as to some of 
them it was. For instance, I could never make a cask to 
be hooped. I had a small runlet or two, as I observed 
before, but I could never arrive to the capacity of making 
one by them, though I spent many weeks about it. I 
could neither put in the heads, nor joint the staves so true 
to one another as to make them hold water. So I gave 
that also over. 

In the next place, I was at a great loss for candle ; so 
that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by 
seven o’clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered 
the lump of bees’-wax with which I made candles in my 
African adventure, but I had none of that now. The only 
remedy I had was, that when I had killed a goat, I saved 
the tallow ; and with a little dish made of clay, which I 
baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum, 
I made me a lamp, and this gave me light, though not a 
clear, steady light, like a candle. In the middle of all my 
labors it happened that, rummaging my things, I found a 
little bag, which, as I hinted before, had been filled with 
corn for the feeding of poultry, not for this voyage, but 
before, as I suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon. 
What little remainder of corn had been in the bag was all 
devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but 
husks and dust ; and being willing to have the bag for 
some other use (I think it was to put powder in, when I 


92 


The Life and Adventures of 


divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use), I 
shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my fortifi- 
cation under the rock. 

It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned 
that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice of anything, 
and not so much as remembering that I had thrown any- 
thing there ; when, about a month after, or thereabout, I 
saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of 
the ground, which I fancied might be some plant I had 
not seen ; but I was surprised and perfectly astonished 
when, after a longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears 
come out, which were perfect green barley, of the same 
kind as our European, nay, as our English barley. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment and confu- 
sion of my thoughts on this occasion. I had hitherto acted 
upon no religious foundation at all ; indeed, I had very few 
notions of religion in my head, nor had entertained any 
sense of anything that had befallen me otherwise than as 
a chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God ; without 
so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these 
things, or his order in governing events in the world. But 
after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I know 
was not proper for corn, and especially that I knew not 
how it came there, it startled me strangely, and I began to 
suggest that God had miraculously caused this grain to grow 
without any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed 
purely for my sustenance on that wild miserable place. 

This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of 
my eyes ; and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy 
of nature should happen upon my account. And this was 
the more strange to me, because I saw near it still all along 
by the side of the rock some other straggling stalks, which 
proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew because I 
had seen it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there. 


Robinson Crusoe 


93 


I not only thought these the pure productions of Provi- 
dence for my support, but not doubting but that there was 
more in the place, I went all over that part of the island 
where I had been before, peering in every corner and 
under every rock, to see for more of it ; but I could not 
find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts that I had' 
shaken a bag of chickens’ meat out in that place, and then 
the wonder began to cease ; and I must confess my reli- 
gious thankfulness to God’s providence began to abate too 
upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what 
was common ; though I ought to have been as thankful 
for so strange and unforeseen providence as if it had been 
miraculous : for it was really the work of Providence as to 
me, that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains 
corn should remain unspoiled (when the rats had destroyed 
all the rest), as if it had been dropped from heaven ; as 
also that I should throw it out in that particular place, 
where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up 
immediately ; whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else at 
that time, it had been burned up and destroyed. 

I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, 
in their season, which was about the end of June; and 
laying up every corn, I resolved to sow them all again, 
hoping in time to have some quantity sufficient to supply 
me with bread. But it was not till the fourth year that I 
could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and 
even then but sparingly, as I shall say afterwards in its 
order ; for I lost all that I sowed the first season by not 
observing the proper time ; for I sowed it just before the 
dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as 
it would have done — of which in its place. 

Besides this barley there was, as above, twenty or thirty 
stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same care, and 
whose use was of the same kind or to the same purpose — 


94 


The Life and Adventures of 


namely, to make me bread, or rather food ; for I found 
ways to cook it up without baking, though I did that also 
after some time. But to return to my journal. 

I worked excessively hard these three or four months to 
get my wall done ; and the 14th of April I closed it up, 
contriving to go into it, not by a door, but over the wall 
by a ladder, that there might be no sign on the outside of 
my habitation. 

April 1 6. I finished the ladder ; so I went up with the"' 
ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let 
it down on the inside. This was a complete enclosure to 
me — for within I had room enough, and nothing could 
come at me from without, unless it could first mount my 
wall. 

The very next day after this wall was finished, I had 
almost had all my labor overthrown at once, and myself 
killed. The case was thus : As I was busy in the inside 
of it, behind my tent, just in the entrance into my cave, I 
was terribly frightened with a most dreadful surprising 
thing indeed ; for all on a sudden I found the earth come 
crumbling down from the roof of my cave and from the 
edge of the hill over my head, and two of the posts I had 
set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner. I was 
heartily scared, but thought nothing of what was really 
the cause — only thinking that the top of my cave was 
falling in, as some of it had done before; and for fear I 
should be buried in it, I ran forward to my ladder, and not 
thinking myself safe there neither, I got over my wall for 
fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected might roll 
down upon me. I was no sooner stepped down upon the 
firm ground, but I plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake, 
for the ground I stood on shook three times at about eight 
minutes’ distance with three such shocks as would have 
overturned the strongest building that could be supposed 


Robinson Crusoe 


95 


to have stood on the earth ; and a great piece of the top 
of a rock, which stood about half a mile from me next the 
sea, fell down with such a terrible noise as I never heard 
in all my life. I perceived also the very sea was put into 
violent motion by it, and I believe the shocks were stronger 
under the water than on the island. 

I was so amazed with the thing itself — having never 
felt the like or discoursed with any one that had — that 
I was like one dead or stupefied ; and the motion of the 
earth made my stomach sick, like one that was tossed at 
sea. But the noise of the falling of the rock awaked me, 
as it were, and rousing me from the stupefied condition I 
was in, filled me with horror, and I thought of nothing 
then but the hill falling upon my tent and all my house- 
hold goods, and burying all at once ; and this sunk my 
very soul within me a second time. 

After the third shock was over, and I felt no more 
for some time, I began to take courage; and yet I had 
not heart enough to go over my wall again, for fear of 
being buried alive, but sat still upon the ground, greatly 
cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All 
this while I had not the least serious religious thought, 
nothing but the common ‘‘Lord, have mercy upon me”; 
and when it was over, that went away too. 

While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow 
cloudy, as if it would rain. Soon after that the wind rose 
by little and little, so that in less than half an hour it 
blew a most dreadful hurricane. The sea was all on a 
sudden covered over with foam and froth, the shore was 
covered with the breach of the water, the trees were torn 
up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was; and this 
held about three hours and then began to abate, and in 
two hours more it was calm and began to rain very hard. 

All this while I sat upon the ground very much tetri- 


The Life and Adventures of 


96 

fied and dejected, when on a sudden it came into my 
thoughts that these winds and rain being the consequences 
of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and 
over, and I might venture into my cave again. With this 
thought my spirits began to revive, and the rain also help- 
ing to persuade me, I went in and sat down in my tent — 
but the rain was so violent that my tent was ready to be 
beaten down with it, and I was forced to go into my cave, 
though very much afraid and uneasy for fear it should 
fall on my head. 

This violent rain forced me to a new work — namely, 
to cut a hole through my new fortification like a sink to 
let the water go out, which would else have drowned my 
cave. After I had been in my cave some time and found 
still no more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began 
to be more composed ; and now to support my spirits — 
which indeed wanted it very much — I went to my little 
store and took a small sup of rum, which however I did 
then and always very sparingly, knowing I could have 
no more when that was gone. 

It continued raining all that night and great part of 
the next day, so that I could not stir abroad ; but my 
mind being more composed, I began to think of what 
I had best do, concluding that if the island was subject 
to these earthquakes there would be no living for me in 
a cave, but I must consider of building me some little 
hut in an open place which I might surround with a 
wall as I had done here, and so make myself secure 
from wild beasts or men ; but concluded, if I stayed 
where I was, I should certainly, one time or other, be 
buried alive. 

With these thoughts I resolved to remove my tent from 
the place where it stood, which was just under the hang- 
ing precipice of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken 


Robinson Crusoe 


97 


again, would certainly fall upon my tent. And I spent 
the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in 
contriving where and how to remove my habitation. 

The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that 
I never* slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension of lying 
abroad without any fence was almost equal to it ; but 
still when I looked about and saw how everything was 
put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how 
safe from danger, it made me very loath to remove. 

In the meantime it occurred to me that it would require 
a vast deal of time for me to do this, and that I must 
be contented to run the venture where I was, till I had 
formed a camp for myself, and had secured it so as to 
remove to it. So with this resolution I composed myself 
for a time, and resolved that I would go to work with 
all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, etc., 
in a circle as before, and set my tent up in it when it 
was finished, but that I would venture to stay where I 
was till it was finished and fit to remove to. This was 
the 2 1 st. 

April 22. The next morning I began to consider of 
means to put this resolve in execution, but I was at a 
great loss about my tools. I had three large axes and 
abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for 
traffic with the Indians), but with much chopping and 
cutting knotty hard wood they were all full of notches 
and dull ; and though I had a grindstone, I could not 
turn it and grind my tools too. This cost me as much 
thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a 
grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and 
death of a man. At length I contrived a wheel with a 
string to turn it with my foot, that I might have both 
my hands at liberty. Note . — I had never seen any such 
thing in England, or at least not to take notice how it 


H 




98 The Life and Adventures of 

was done, though since I have observed it is very com 
mon there; besides that, my grindstone was very larg- 
and heavy. This machine cost me a full we^ v ’ 
to bring it to perfection. $in. With this 

April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in 
grinding my tools, my machine for turning my grindstone 
performing very well. 

April 30. Having perceived my bread had been low 
a great while, now I took a survey of it, and reduced 
myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which made my heart 
very heavy. 

May 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, 
the tide being low, I saw something lie on the shore 
bigger than ordinary, and it looked like a cask. When 
I came to it, I found a small barrel and two or three 
pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on 
shore by the late hurricane ; and looking towards the 
wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of 
the water than it used to do. I examined the barrel 
which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a 
barrel of gunpowder; but it had taken water, and the 
powder was caked as hard as a stone. However, I rolled 
it further on shore for the present, and went on upon the 
sands as near as I could to the wreck of the ship to look 
for more. 

When I came down to the ship I found it strangely 
removed. The forecastle, which lay before buried in 
sand, was heaved up at least six foot ; an< c it secure 
which was broken to pieces and parted if I stayed 
by the force of the sea soon after I hac ] or other, be 
her, was tossed, as it were, up and cast 
the sand was thrown so high on that sid my tent from 
that whereas there was a great place r "under the hang- 
that I could not come within a quarters ould be shaken 


Robinson Crusoe 


99 


>ck without swimming, I could now walk quite up to 
* when the tide was out. I was surprised with this at 
c ’ concluded it must be done by the earth- 

t The tear of t this violence the ship was more 
roken open than formerly, so many things came daily 
n shore which the sea had loosened, and which the 
\dnds and water rolled by degrees to the land. 

This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of 
emoving my habitation ; and I busied myself mightily, 
hat day especially, in searching whether I could make 
.ny way into the ship; but I found nothing was to be 
:xpected of that kind, for that all the inside of the ship 
vas choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not 

0 despair of anything, I resolved to pull everything to 
)ieces that I could of the ship, concluding that everything 

1 could get from her would be of some use or other to me. 
May 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a 

beam through, which I thought held some of the upper 
part or quarter-deck together; and when I had cut it 
through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could from 
the side which lay highest ; but the tide coming in, I was 
obliged to give over for that time. 

May 4. I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I 
durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when just going 
to leave off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made me a 
long line of some rope yarn, but I had no hooks, yet I 
frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat ; 
ed in the sun, and ate them dry. 
thought as A on t k e wrec j C) cu j- another beam asun- 
grand point £- ee g reat fj r planks off from the decks, 
death of a ma anc [ mac | e sw j m 0 n shore when the 
string to turn 1 \ n 

my hands at libt n wrec ] c> g 0 t several iron bolts 
thing in Englan pj eces 0 f iron-work, worked very 


IOO 


The Life and Adventures of 


hard, and came home very much tired, and had thoughts 
of giving it over. ai 

May 7. Went to the wreck again, but with an intent ' not fr 
to work; but found the weight of the wreck had broker 01 
itself down, the beams being cut, that several pieces of thl.fr 
ship seemed to lie loose, and the inside of the hold lay so l0 j 
open that I could see into it, but almost full of water and ^ 
Sand. 

May 8. Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to| eJ 
wrench up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the ^ 
water or sand. I wrenched open two planks, and brought ^ 
them on shore also with the tide. I left the iron crow in Q , 
the wreck for next day. jj r( 

May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow made ^ 
way into the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and pj 
loosened them with the crow, but could not break them up. 

I felt also the roll of English lead, and could stir it, but it ^ 
was too heavy to remove. 

May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Went every day to the wreck, j 
and got a great deal of pieces of timber and boards, or ^ 
planks, and two or three hundredweight of iron. 

May 15. I carried two hatchets to try if I could not cut ^ 
a piece off of the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one 
hatchet and driving it with the other ; but as it lay about ^ 
a foot and a half in the water, I could not make any jb lo\y 
to drive the hatchet. 

May 1 6. It had blowed hard in the night, and the wreck . 
appeared more broken by the force of the water j but I 
stayed so long in the woods to get pigeons for food, that 
the tide prevented me going to the wreck that day. 

May 1 7. I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on ' 
shore, at a great distance, near two miles off me, but , 
resolved to see what they were, and found it was a piecd 
of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away. 


Robinson Crusoe 


IOI 


May 24. Every day to this day I worked on the wreck, 
md with hard labor I loosened some things so much with 
:he crow, that the first blowing tide several casks floated 
lut, and two of the seamen’s chests ; but the wind blowing 
crom the shore, nothing came to land that day but pieces 

timber, and a hogshead which had some Brazil pork in 
it, but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it. 

I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, 
except the time necessary to get food, which I always 
appointed, during this part of my employment, to be when 
;he tide was up, that I might be ready when it was ebbed 
Dut ; and by this time I had gotten timber and plank and 
iron-work enough to have built a good boat, if I had 
known how; and also, I got at several times and in several 
pieces, near one hundredweight of the sheet lead. 

June 1 6. Going down to the sea-side, I found a large 
tortoise or turtle. This was the first I had seen ; which, it 
seems, was only my misfortune, not any defect of the 
place or scarcity ; for had I happened to be on the other 
side of the island, I might have had hundreds of them 
every day, as I found afterwards ; but, perhaps, had paid 
dear enough for them. 

June 1 7. I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her 
three-score eggs ; and her flesh was to me at that time the 
most savory and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, 
having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls, since I landed 
in this horrid place. 

June 18. Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought 
at this time the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly, 
which I knew was not usual in that latitude. 

June 19. Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had 
been cold. 

June 20. No rest all night, violent pains in my head, 
and feverish. 


102 


The Life and Adventures of 


June 21. Very ill. Frightened almost to death with the 
apprehensions of my sad condition — to be sick and no 
help. Prayed to God for the first time since the storm off 
Hull; but scarce knew what I said, or why, my thoughts 
being all confused. 

June 22. A little better, but under dreadful apprehen- 
sions of sickness. 

June 23. Very bad again, cold and shivering, and then 
a violent headache. 

June 24. Much better. 

June 25. An ague, very violent. The fit held me seven 
hours, cold fit and hot, with faint sweats after it. 

June 26. Better ; and having no victuals to eat, took my 
gun, but found myself very weak. However, I killed a 
she-goat, and with much difficulty got it home, and broiled 
some of it, and ate. I would fain have stewed it, and 
made some broth, but had no pot. 

June 27. The ague again, so violent that I lay a-bed all 
day, and neither ate nor drank. I was ready to perish for 
thirst, but so weak, I had not strength to stand up or to 
get myself any water to drink. Prayed to God again ; i 
but was light-headed, and when I was not, I was so igno- 1 
rant that I knew not what to say ; only I lay and cried, 
“ Lord, look upon me ; Lord, pity me ; Lord, have mercy j 
upon me ! ” I suppose I did nothing else for two or three | 
hours, till the fit wearing off I fell asleep, and did not ; 
wake till far in the night. When I waked I found myself 
much refreshed, but weak and exceeding thirsty. How- 
ever, as I had no water in my whole habitation, I was! 
forced to lie till morning, and went to sleep again. In 
this second sleep I had this terrible dream : — 

I thought that I was sitting on the ground on the out-| 
side of my wall, where I sat when the storm blew after! 
the earthquake, and that I saw a man descend from a 


Robinson Crusoe 


103 


great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and light upon 
the ground. He was all over as bright as a flame, so that 
I could but just bear to look towards him. He counte- 
nance was most inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words 
to describe. When he stepped upon the ground with his 
feet, I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done 
before in the earthquake ; and all the air looked, to my 
apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of fire. 

He was no sooner landed upon the earth but he moved 
forward towards me, with a long spear or weapon in his 
hand, to kill me. And when he came to a rising ground 
at some distance, he spoke to me, or I heard a voice so 
terrible, that it is impossible to express the terror of it. 
All that I can say I understood was this, “ Seeing all these 
things have not brought thee to repentance, now thou 
shalt die.” At which words, I thought he lifted up the 
spear that was in his hand to kill me. 

[ No one that shall ever read this account will expect that 
• I should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this 
1 terrible vision. I mean, that even while it was a dream, I 
I even dreamed of those horrors. Nor is it any more pos- 
sible to describe the impression that remained upon my 
mind, when I awaked and found it was but a dream. 

I had, alas ! no divine knowledge. What I had received 
by the good instruction of my father was then worn out by 
an uninterrupted series, for eight years, of sea-faring wick- 
edness, and a constant conversation with nothing but such 
as were like myself, wicked and profane to the last degree. 
I do not remember that I had in all that time one thought 
that so much as tended either to looking upwards towards 
God, or inwards towards a reflection upon my own ways. 
But a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good or 
conscious of evil, had entirely overwhelmed me, and I was 
all that the most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature 


104 


The Life and Adventures of 


among our common sailors can be supposed to be, not hav- 
ing the least sense, either of the fear of God in danger, or 
of thankfulness to God in deliverances. 

In the relating what is already past of my story, this will i 
be the more easily believed, when I shall add, that through 1 
all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me, i 
I never had so much as one thought of it being the hand 1 
of God, or that it was a just punishment for my sin, my i 
rebellious behavior against my father, or my present sins, 
which were great; or so much as a punishment for the J 
general course of my wicked life. When I was on the ! 
desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I never i 
had so much as one thought of what would become of me ; 
or one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to 
keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, 
as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages. But I 
was merely thoughtless of a God, or a Providence ; acted 
like a mere brute from the principles of nature, and by the 
dictates of common sense only, and indeed hardly that. 

When I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portu- 
gal captain, well used, and dealt justly and honorably with, 
as well as charitably, I had not the least thankfulness on 
my thoughts. When again I was shipwrecked, ruined, and 
in danger of drowning on this island, I was as far from! 
remorse, or looking on it as a judgment; I only said to 
myself often that I was an unfortunate dog, and born to be 
always miserable. 

It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all my 
ship’s crew drowned, and myself spared, I was surprised 
with a kind of ecstasy and some transports of soul, which, 
had the grace of God assisted, might have come up to true 
thankfulness. But it ended where it begun, in a mere 
common flight of joy, or, as I may say, b£ing glad I was 
alive, without the least reflection upon the distinguishing 


Robinson Crusoe 105 

goodness of the hand which had preserved me, and had 
singled me out to be preserved, when all the rest were 
destroyed ; or an inquiry why Providence had been thus 
merciful to me — even just the same common sort of joy 
which seamen generally have after they have got safe 
ashore from a shipwreck, which they drown all in the next 
bowl of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over ; and 
all the rest of my life was like it. 

Even when I was afterwards, on due consideration, made 
: sensible of my condition, how I was cast on this dreadful 
: place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of 
relief or prospect of redemption, as soon as I saw but a 
; prospect of living, and that I should not starve and perish 
1 for hunger, all the sense of my affliction wore off, and I 
, begun to be very easy, applied myself to the works proper 
for my preservation and supply, and was far enough from 
I being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from heaven, 

: or as the hand of God against me. These were thoughts 
which very seldom entered into my head. 

The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my journal, 

, had at first some little influence upon me, and began to 
i affect me with seriousness, as long as I thought it had some- 
I thing miraculous in it ; but as soon as ever that part of the 
thought was removed, all the impression which was raised 
, from it wore off also, as I have noted already. 

: Even the earthquake, though nothing could be more 

terrible in its nature, or more immediately directing to the 
Invisible Power which alone directs such things, yet no 
sooner was the first fright over, but the impression it had 
made went off also. I had no more sense of God or his 
judgments, much less of the present affliction of my cir- 
cumstances being from his hand, than if I had been in the 
most prosperous condition of life. 

But now when I began to be sick, and a leisurely view 


iq6 The Life and Adventures of 

of the miseries of death came to place itself before me ; 
when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong 
distemper, and nature was exhausted with the violence of 
the fever; conscience, that had slept so long, began to 
awake, and I began to reproach myself with my past life, 
in which I had so evidently, by uncommon wickedness, 
provoked the justice of God to lay me under uncommon 
strokes, and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner. 

These reflections oppressed me for the second or third 
day of my distemper, and in the violence, as well of the 
fever as of the dreadful reproaches of my conscience, 
extorted some words from me like praying to God, though 
I cannot say they were either a prayer attended with 
desires or with hopes; it was rather the voice of mere 
fright and distress. My thoughts were confused, the con- 
victions great upon my mind, and the horror of dying in 
such a miserable condition raised vapors into my head 
with the mere apprehensions ; and in these hurries of my 
soul I know not what my tongue might express. But it 
was rather exclamation, such as, “ Lord, what a miserable 
creature am I ! If I should be sick, I shall certainly die 
for want of help, and what will become of me ? ” Then 
the tears burst out of my eyes, and I could say no more 
for a good while. 

In this interval, the good advice of my father came to 
my mind, and presently his prediction, which I mentioned 
at the beginning of this story, namely that if I did take 
this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I would 
have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his 
counsel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery. 
“ Now,” said I aloud, “my dear father’s words are come to 
pass : God’s justice has overtaken me, and I have none to 
help or hear me. I rejected the voice of Providence, which 
had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life wherein 


Robinson Crusoe 


107 

I might have been happy and easy; but I would neither 
see it myself nor learn to know the blessing of it from my 
parents. I left them to mourn over my folly, and now I 
am left to mourn under the consequences of it. I refused 
their help and assistance who would have lifted me into 
the world, and would have made everything easy to me ; 
and now I have difficulties to struggle with, too great for 
even nature itself to support, and no assistance, no help, 
no comfort, no advice.” Then I cried out, “ Lord, be my 
help ; for I am in great distress.” 


This was the first prayer, if I may call it so, that I had 
made for many years. But I return to my journal. 



GRINDING MY TOOLS.’ 


io8 


The Life and Adventures of 


VII. Crusoe's illness — and how he cured 
himself — Finds a Bible , reading which 
gives him consolation — Explores his 
island — Finds tobacco , aloes , melons , 
grapes , and sugar cane - — His lost cat 
returns with three kittens. 

June 28. Having been somewhat refreshed with the 
sleep I had had, and the fit being entirely off, I got up ; 
and though the fright and terror of my dream was very 
great, yet I considered that the fit of the ague would return 
again the next day, and now was my time to get something 
to refresh and support myself when I should be ill. And 
the first thing I did, I filled a large square case-bottle with 
water, and set it upon my table, in reach of my bed ; and 
to take off the chill or aguish disposition of the water, I 
put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it and mixed 
them together. Then I got me a piece of the goat’s flesh 
and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. I 
walked about, but was very weak, and withal very sad and 
heavy-hearted in the sense of my miserable condition, 
dreading the return of my distemper the next day. At 
night I made my supper of three of the turtle’s eggs, which 
I roasted in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell : 
and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God’s 
blessing to, even as I could remember, in my whole life. 

After I had eaten I tried to walk, but found myself so 
weak that I could hardly carry the gun (for I never went 
out without that); so I went but a little way, and sat down 
upon the ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just 


Robinson Crusoe 


109 




before me, and very calm and smooth. As I sat here, some 
such thoughts as these occurred to me : — 

What is this earth and sea of which I have seen so 
much, whence is it produced ; and what am I and all the 
other creatures, wild and tame, human and brutal, whence 
are we ? 

Sure we are all made by some secret Power, who formed 
the earth and sea, the air and sky ; and who is that ? 

Then it followed most naturally, It is God that has made 
it all. Well, but then it came on strangely, If God has 
made all these things, he guides and governs them all, and 
all things that concern them ; for the Power that could 
make all things must certainly have power to guide and 
direct them. 

If so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of his 
works, either without his knowledge or appointment. 

And if nothing happens without his knowledge, he 
knows that I am here, and am in this dreadful condition ; 
and if nothing happens without his appointment, he has 
appointed all this to befall me. 

Nothing occurred to my thought to contradict any of 
these conclusions ; and therefore it rested upon me with 
the greater force, that it must needs be that God had 
appointed all this to befall me ; that I was brought to this 
miserable circumstance by his direction, he having the sole 
power, not of me only, but of everything that happened in 
the world. Immediately it followed, — 

Why has God done this to me ? What have I done to 
be thus used ? 

My conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as 
if I had blasphemed, and methought it spoke to me like a 
voice : Wretch ! dost thou ask what thou hast done? Look 
back upon a dreadful misspent life, and ask thyself what 
thou hast not done ! Ask, Why is it that thou wert not 


no The Life and Adventures of 

long ago destroyed ? Why wert thou not drowned in Yar- 
mouth Roads ? killed in the fight when the ship was taken 
by the Sallee man-of-war ? devoured by the wild beasts on 
the coast of Africa ? or, drowned here, when all the crew 
perished but thyself? Dost thou ask, What have I 
done ? 

I was struck dumb with these reflections, as one aston- 
ished, and had not a word to say — no, not to answer to 
myself ; but rose up pensive and sad, walked back to my 
retreat, and went up over my wall, as if I had been going ' 
to bed ; but my thoughts were sadly disturbed, and I had 
no inclination to sleep ; so I sat down in my chair, and 
lighted my lamp, for it began to be dark. Now as the 
apprehension of the return of my distemper terrified me 
very much, it occurred to my thought that the Brazilians 
take no physic but their tobacco for almost all distempers ; 
and I had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the chests, 
which was quite cured, and some also that was green and I 
not quite cured. 

I went, directed by Heaven no doubt ; for in this chest ! 
I found a cure both for soul and body. I opened the chest . 
and found what I looked for, namely, the tobacco ; and as 
the few books I had saved lay there too, I took out one of 1 
the Bibles which I mentioned before, and which to this 
time I had not found leisure, or so much as inclination to 
look into — I say, I took it out, and brought both that and 
the tobacco with me to the table. 

What use to make of the tobacco I knew not, as to my 
distemper, or whether it was good for it or no ; but I tried 
several experiments with it, as if I was resolved it should 
hit one way or other. I first took a piece of a leaf and 
chewed it in my mouth, which indeed at first almost stupe- 
fied my brain, the tobacco being green and strong and that 
I had not been much used to it ; then I took some and I 


Robinson Crusoe 


1 1 1 




steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and resolved to 
take a dose of it when I lay down ; and lastly I burned 
some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over 
the smoke of it as long as I could bear it, as well for the 
heat as almost for suffocation. 

In the interval of this operation, I took up the Bible and 
began to read ; but my head was too much disturbed with 
the tobacco to bear reading, at least that time. Only, hav- 
ing opened the book casually, the first words that occurred 
to me were these, “ Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I 
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” 

The words were very apt to my case, and made some 
impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, 
though not so much as they did afterwards ; for, as for 
being delivered, the word had no sound, as I may say, to 
me ; the thing was so remote, so impossible in my appre- 
hension of things, that I began to say as the children of 
Israel did, when they were promised flesh to eat, “ Can 
God spread a table in the wilderness ? ” so I began to say, 
Can God himself deliver me from this place ? and as it was 
not for many years that any hope appeared, this prevailed 
very often upon my thoughts ; but, however, the words 
made a great impression upon me, and I mused upon them 
very often. It grew now late, and the tobacco had, as I 
said, dozed my head so much that I inclined to sleep ; so 
I left my lamp burning in the cave lest I should want any- 
thing in the night, and went to bed: but, before I lay down, 
I did what I never had done in all my life — I kneeled 
down and prayed to God to fulfil the promise to me, that 
if I called upon him in the day of trouble, he would deliver 
me. After my broken and imperfect prayer was over I 
drank the rum in which I had steeped the tobacco, which 
was so strong and rank of the tobacco that I indeed could 
scarce get it down. Immediately upon this I went to bed. 


I 12 


The Life and Adventures of 


I found presently it flew up in my .head violently, but I 
fell into a sound sleep, and waked no more till, by the sun, 
it must necessarily be near three o’clock in the afternoon the 
next day. Nay, to this hour I am partly of the opinion 
that I slept all the next day and night, and till almost three 
that day after ; for otherwise I knew not how I should lose 
a day out of my reckoning in the days of the week, as it 
appeared some years after I had done. For if I had lost 
it by crossing and recrossing the line, I should have lost 
more than one day ; but, certainly, I lost a day in my 
account, and never knew which way. 

Be that, however, one way or the other, when I awaked 
I found myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits ! 
lively and cheerful ; when I got up I was stronger than 
I was the day before, and my stomach better, for I was 
hungry ; and, in short, I had no fit the next day, but con- 
tinued much altered for the better. This was the 29th. 

The 30th was my well-day, of course, and I went abroad 
with my gun, but did not care to travel too far. I killed a 
sea-fowl or two, something like a brand-goose, and brought 
them home, but was not very forward to eat them ; so I 
ate some more of the turtle’s eggs, which were very good. : 
This evening I renewed the medicine which I had sup- 
posed did me good the day before — namely, the tobacco 
steeped in rum ; only I did not take so much as before, j 
nor did I chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over the j 
smoke. However, I was not so well the next day, which .! 
was the first of July, as I hoped I should have been ; for I 
had a little spice of the cold fit, but it was not much. 

July 2. I renewed the medicine all the three ways, and j 
dosed myself with it as at first; and doubled the quantity 
which I drank. 

July 3. I missed the fit for good and all, though I did j 
not recover my full strength for some weeks after. While || 


Robinson Crusoe 


ll 3 


I was thus gathering strength my thoughts ran exceed- 
ingly upon this Scripture, “I will deliver thee;” and the 
impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon my mind 
in bar of my ever expecting it. But as I was discouraging 
myself with such thoughts it occurred to my mind that I 
pored so much upon my deliverance from the main affliction 
that I disregarded the deliverance I had received ; and I 
was, as it were, made to ask myself such questions as these 
— namely, Have I not been delivered, and wonderfully 
too, from sickness — from the most distressed condition 
that could be, and that was so frightful to me ? And what 
notice I had taken of it : Had I done my part? God had 
delivered me, but I had not gloried him ; that is to say, I 
had not owned and been thankful for that as a deliver- 
ance. And how could I expect greater deliverance ? 

This touched my heart very much, and immediately I 
kneeled down and gave God thanks aloud for my recovery 
from my sickness. 

July 4. In the morning I took the Bible, and, beginning 
at the New Testament, I began seriously to read it, and 
imposed upon myself to read a while every morning and 
every night, not tying myself to the number of chapters, 
but as long as my thoughts should engage me. It was 
not long after I set seriously to this work, but I found my 
heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wicked- 
ness of my past life. The impression of my dream re- 
vived, and the words, “ All these things have not brought 
thee to repentance,” ran seriously in my thought. I was 
earnestly begging of God to give me repentance, when it 
happened providentially the very day that, reading the 
Scripture, I came to these words, “ He is exalted a Prince 
and a Saviour, to give repentance, and to give remission.” 
I threw down the book and with my heart as well as my 
hands lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, I 


1 


1 14 The Life and Adventures of 

cried out aloud, “Jesus, thou son of David, Jesus, thou 
exalted Prince and Saviour, give me repentance ! ” 

This was the first time that I could say, in the true sense 
of the words, that I prayed in all my life ; for now I 
prayed with a sense of my condition, and with a true 
Scripture view of hope founded on the encouragement of 
the Word of God ; and from this time, I may say, I began 
to have hope that God would hear me. 

Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, j 
“ Call on me, and I will deliver thee,” in a different sense ; 
from what I had ever done before; for then I had no i 
notion of anything being called deliverance but my being 
delivered from the captivity I was in : for though I was 
indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly a 
prison to me, and that in the worst sense in the world ; 
but now I learned to take it in another sense. Now I ' 
looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my 
sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of 
God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down 
all my comfort. As for my solitary life, it was nothing ; , 
I did not so much as pray to be delivered from it, or think 
of it ; it was all of no consideration in comparison to this. 
And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, 
that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they 
will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than 
deliverance from affliction. 

But leaving this part, I return to my journal. 

My condition began now to be, though not less miser- | 
able as to my way of living, yet much easier to my mind ; , 
and my thoughts being directed, by a constant reading the 
Scripture and praying to God, to things of a higher nature, 

I had a great deal of comfort within, which till now I knew | 
nothing of. Also as my health and strength returned, I / 
bestirred myself to furnish myself with everything that I I 


Robinson Crusoe 


IJ 5 

wanted, and make my way of living as regular as I 
could. 

From the 4th of July to the 14th I was chiefly employed 
in walking about with my gun in my hand, a little and a 
little at a time, as a man that was gathering up his strength 
after a fit of sickness ; for it is hardly to be imagined how 
low I was, and to what weakness I was reduced. The 
application which I made use of was perfectly new, and 
perhaps what had never cured an ague before, neither can 
I recommend it to any one to practise, by this experiment ; 

) and though it did carry off the fit, yet it rather contributed 
; to weakening me, for I had frequent convulsions in my 
i nerves and limbs for some time. 

I learned from it also this in particular, that being abroad 
in the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my 
| health that could be, especially in those rains which came 
attended with storms and hurricanes of wind ; for as the 
f rain which came in the dry season was always most accom- 
panied with such storms, so I found that rain was much 
; more dangerous than the rain which fell in September and 
; October. 

I had been now in this unhappy island above ten months ; 

, all possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to 
f be entirely taken from me, and I firmly believed that no 

1 human shape had ever set foot upon that place. Having 

now secured my habitation, as I thought, fully to my mind, 
I had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of 
the island, and to see what other productions I might find 
; which I yet knew nothing of. 

It was the 15th of July that I began to take a more par- 
ticular survey of the island itself. I went up the creek 
first, where, as I hinted, I brought my rafts on shore. I 
found, after I came about two miles up, that the tide did 
not flow any higher, and that it was no more than a little 


1 1 6 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

brook of running water, and very fresh and good ; but this 
being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some 
parts of it, at least not enough to run in any stream so as 
it could be perceived. On the bank of this brook I found 
many pleasant savannas, or meadows, plain, smooth, and 
covered with grass ; and on the rising parts of them, next 
to the higher grounds, where the water, as it might be 
supposed, never overflowed, I found a great deal of to- 
bacco, green, and growing to a great and very strong stalk. 
There were divers other plants which I had no notion of, 
or understanding about, and might perhaps have virtues of 
their own, which I could not find out. 

I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians in all 
that climate make their bread of ; but I could find none. I 
saw large plants of aloes, but did not then understand them. 
I saw several sugar canes, but wild, and, for want of cultiva- 
tion, imperfect. I contented myself with these discoveries 
for this time, and came back musing with myself what 
course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of 
any of the fruits or plants which I should discover, but 
could bring it to no conclusion ; for in short, I had made so 
little observation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew 
little of the plants in the field, at least very little that might 
serve me to any purpose now in my distress. 

The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again, 
and after going something farther than I had gone the 
day before, I found the brook, and the savannas began to 
cease, and the country became more woody than before. 
In this part I found different fruits, and, particularly, I 
found melons upon the ground in great abundance, and 
grapes upon the trees ; the vines had spread indeed over 
the trees, and the clusters of grapes were just now in their 
prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising discov- 
ery, and I was exceeding glad of them ; but I was warned : 






1 1 8 The Life and Adventures of 

by my experience to eat sparingly of them, remembering 
that, when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes 
killed several of our Englishmen, who were slaves there, 
by throwing them into fluxes and fevers. But I found an 
excellent use for these grapes, and that was to cure or dry 
them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins 
are kept ; which I thought would be, as indeed they were, 
as wholesome as agreeable to eat, when no grapes might 
be to be had. 

I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my 
habitation, which, by the way, was the first night, as I 
might say, I had lain from home. In the night I took my 
first contrivance, and got up into a tree, where I slept well ; 
and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery, trav- 
elling near four miles, as I might judge by the length of 
the valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on 
the south and north side of me. 

At the end of this march I came to an opening, where 
the country seemed to descend to the west, and a little 
spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the 
hill by me, ran the other way, that is due east ; and the 
country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every- 
thing being in a constant verdure, or flourish of spring, 
that it looked like a planted garden. 

I descended a little on the side of that delicious vale, 
surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed 
with my other afflicting thoughts) — to think that this was 
all my own, that I was king and lord of all this country 
indefeasibly, and had a right of possession ; and if I could 
convey it, I might have it in inheritance, as completely as 
any lord of a manor in England. I saw here abundance 
of cocoa trees, orange, and lemon, and citron trees, but all 
wild, and very few bearing any fruit, at least not then. 
However, the green limes that I gathered were not only 


Robinson Crusoe 


119 

pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their 
juice afterwards with water, which made it very whole- 
some, and very cool, and refreshing. 

I found now I had business enough to gather and carry 
home ; and I resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes 
as limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, 
which I knew was approaching. 

In order to this, I gathered a great heap of grapes in 
one place, and a lesser heap in another place, and a great 
parcel of limes and lemons in another place ; and, taking 
a few of each with me, I travelled homeward, and resolved 
to come' again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I could 
make to carry the rest home. 

Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I 
came home ; — so I must now call my tent and my cave. 
But, before I got thither the grapes were spoiled — the 
richness of the fruits and the weight of the juice having 
broken them, and bruised them, they were good for little 
or nothing ; as to the limes, they were good, but I could 
bring but a few. 

The next day, being the nineteenth, I went back, having 
made me two small bags to bring home my harvest. But 
I was surprised when, coming to my heap of grapes, which 
were so rich and fine when I gathered them, I found them 
all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some 
here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By 
this I concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts 
which had done this, but what they were I knew not. 

However, as I found that there was no laying them up 
on heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack, but that 
one way they would be destroyed, and the other way they 
would be crushed with their own weight, I took another 
course ; for I gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and 
hung them up upon the out branches of the trees, that 


120 The Life and Adventures of 

they might cure and dry in the sun ; and as for the limes 
and lemons, I carried as many back as I could well stand 
under. 

When I came home from this journey I contemplated 
with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley and the 
pleasantness of the situation, the security from storms on 
that side the water, and the wood, and concluded that I 
had pitched upon a place to fix my abode which was by 
far the worst part of the country. Upon the whole I 
began to consider of removing my habitation, and to look 
out for a place equally safe as where I now was situate, if 
possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the island. 

This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceeding i 
fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place 
tempting me ; but when I came to a nearer view of it, and 
to consider that I was now by the sea-side, where it was at 
least possible that something might happen to my advan- 
tage, and by the same ill fate that brought me hither might ' 
bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place ; and i < 
though it was scarce probable that any such thing should i i 
ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and h 
woods, in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my j : 
bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable j < 
but impossible ; and that, therefore, I ought not by any 
means to remove. 

However, I was so enamoured of this place, that I spent ( 
much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the j I 
month of July; and though, upon second thoughts, I re- M 
solved as above, not to remove, yet I built me a little kind j 
of a bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong t 
fence, being a double hedge, as high as I could reach, well ’ 
staked, and filled between with brushwood ; and here I lay ! t 
very secure, sometimes two or three nights together, always 
going over it with a ladder as before ; so that I fancied now t 


Robinson Crusoe 


I 2 I 


I had my country house and my sea-coast house. And this 
work took me up to the beginning of August. 

I had but newly finished my fence and begun to enjoy 
my labor, but the rains came on, and made me stick close 
to my first habitation. For though I had made me a tent 
like the other, with a piece of a sail, and spread it very 
I well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from 
storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains 
were extraordinary. 

About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished 
my bower and began to enjoy myself. The 3rd of August 
I found the grapes I had hung up were perfectly dried, 
and, indeed, were excellent good raisins of the sun ; so I 
began to take them down from the trees, and it was very 
happy that I did so, for the rains which followed would 
have spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my 
winter food, for I had above two hundred large bunches 
of them. No sooner had I taken them all down, and 
carried most of them home to my cave, but it began to 
, rain, and from hence, which was the 14th of August, it 
rained more or less every day till the middle of October ; 
and sometimes so violently that I could not stir out of my 
cave for several days. 

In this season I was much surprised with the increase 
of my family. I had been concerned for the loss of one 
of my cats, who ran away from me, or as I thought had 
been dead, and I heard no more tale or tidings of her till, 
to my astonishment, she came home about the end of 
August with three kittens ! . . . But from these three 
cats I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats that I 
was forced to kill them like vermin or wild beasts, and 
I to drive them from my house as much as possible. 

From the 14th of August to the 26th incessant rain, so 
I that I could not stir, and was now very careful not to be 


122 


The Life and Adventures of 


much wet. In this confinement I began to be straitened 1 
for food, but venturing out twice, I one day killed a goat, 
and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large 
tortoise, which was a treat to me ; and my food was regu- i 
lated thus : — I eat a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a 
piece of the goat’s flesh or of the turtle for my dinner 
broiled — for to my great misfortune I had no vessel to \ 
boil or stew anything — and two or three of the turtle’s 
eggs for my supper. 

During this confinement in my cover by the rain I 
worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and 
by degrees worked it on towards one side till I came to 
the outside of the hill, and made a door or way out, which 
came beyond my fence or wall, and so I came in and out 
this way. But I was not perfectly easy at lying so open ; 3 
for as I had managed myself before, I was in a perfect j 
enclosure, whereas now I thought I lay exposed and open \ 
for anything to come in upon me. And yet I could not ( 
perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest | 
creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat, , 





Robinson Crusoe 


123 


VIII. Crusoe celebrates the first anniversary 
of his landing — and sets apart a Sab- 
bath day — He learns the division 
of the seasons — Makes wicker-work 
baskets — Further explores the island 
— Catches and tames a young goat 
— His second anniversary on the 
island — Some difficulties overcome. 

September the 30 th. I was now come to the unhappy 
anniversary of my landing. I cast up the notches on my 
post, and found I had been on shore 365 days. I kept 
this day as a solemn fast, setting it apart to religious exer- 
cise, prostrating myself on the ground with the most serious 
humiliation, confessing my sins to God, acknowledging his 
righteous judgments upon me, and praying to him to have 
mercy on me through Jesus Christ. And having not 
tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours, even till the 
going down of the sun, I then eat a biscuit-cake and a 
bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as I 
began it. 

I had all this time observed no Sabbath day ; for as at 
first I had no sense of religion upon my mind, I had after 
sometime omitted to distinguish the weeks by making a 
longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath day, and so 
did not really know what any of the days were. But now 
having cast up the days as above, I found I had been 
there a year, so I divided it into weeks, and set apart 
every seventh day for a Sabbath ; though I found at the 
end of my account I had lost a day or two in my reckoning. 


124 


The Life and Adventures of 


A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so I con- 
tented myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down \ 
only the most remarkable events of my life, without con- 
tinuing a daily memorandum of other things. 

The rainy season and the dry season began now to 
appear regular to me ; and I learned to divide them, so as 
to provide for them accordingly. But I bought all my ex- 
perience before I had it ; and this I am going to relate was 
one of the most discouraging experiments that I made at 
all. I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of 
barley and rice which I had so surprisingly found spring- 
ing up, as I thought of themselves, and believe there were 
about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley. 
And now I thought it a proper time to sow it after the 
rains, the sun being in its southern position going from me. 

Accordingly I dug up a piece of ground as well as I 
could with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, 

I sowed my grain ; but as I was sowing it casually occurred 
to my thoughts that I would not sow it all at first, because 
I did not know when was the proper time for it, so 1 sowed 
about two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a handful of 
each. 

It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so, 
for not one grain of that I sowed this time came to any- 
thing ; for the dry months following, the earth having had 
no rain after the seed was sown, it had no moisture to 
assist its growth, and never came up at all till the wet 
season had come again, and then it grew as if it had been 
but newly sown. 

Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily 
imagined was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece 
of ground to make another trial in ; and I dug up a piece 
of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my 
seed in February, a little before the vernal equinox ; and 


Robinson Crusoe 


I2 5 


this having the rainy months of March and April to water 
it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good 
crop. But having part of the seed left only, and not 
daring to sow all that I had, I had but a small quantity at 
last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of 
each kind. 

But by this experiment I was made master of my busi- 
ness, and knew exactly when the proper season was to 
sow; and that I might expect two seed-times and two 
harvests every year. 

While this corn was growing I made a little discovery, 
which was of use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains 
were over and the weather began to settle, which was 
about the month of November, I made a visit up the 
country to my bower, where, though I had not been some 
months, yet I found all things just as I left them. The 
circle, or double hedge, that I had made was not only firm 
and entire, but the stakes, which I had cut out of some 
trees that grew thereabouts, were all shot out and grown 
with long branches, as much as a willow tree usually shoots 
the first year after lopping its head. I could not tell what 
tree to call it that these stakes were cut from. I was sur- 
prised and yet very well pleased to see the young trees 
grow ; and I pruned them, and led them up to grow as 
much alike as I could ; and it is scarce credible how beau- 
tiful a figure they grew into in three years. So that, 
though the hedge made a circle of about twenty-five yards 
in diameter, yet the trees (for such I might now call them) 
soon covered it ; and it was a complete shade, sufficient to 
lodge under all the dry season. 

This made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and 
make me a hedge like this in a semicircle round my wall 
— I mean that of my first dwelling — which I did; and 
placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at about 


126 


The Life and Adventures of 


eight yards distance from my first fence, they grew pres- 
ently, and were at first a fine cover to my habitation, and 
afterwards served for a defence also, as I shall observe 
in its order. 

I found now that the seasons of the year might gen- 
erally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in 
Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, 
which were generally thus : — 


Half February, 
March, 
Half April, 

Half April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

Half August, 
Half August, 
September, 
Half October, 
Half October, 
November, 
December, 
January, 
Half February, 


( Rainy — the sun being then on or near the 
j Equinox. 


^ Dry — the sun being then to the north of 
j the Line. 

j Rainy — the sun being then come back. 

Dry — the sun being then to the south of 
the Line. 


The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, as 
the winds - happened to blow, but this was the general 
observation I made. After I had found, by experience, 
the ill consequence of being abroad in the rain, I took 
care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand, that 
I might not be obliged to go out ; and I sat within doors 
as much as possible during the wet months. 

In this time I found much employment (and very suit- 
able also to the time), for I found great occasion of many 
things which I had no way to furnish myself with but 
by hard labor and constant application ; particularly I 


Robinson Crusoe 


\TJ 


tried many ways to make myself a basket, but all the 
twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle that 
they would do nothing. It proved of excellent advan- 
tage to me now, that when I was a boy I used to take 
great delight in standing at a basket-maker’s in the town 
where my father lived to see them make their wicker- 
ware ; and being, as boys usually are, very officious to 
help, and a great observer of the manner how they 
worked those things, and sometimes lending a hand, I 
had by this means full knowledge of the methods of it, 
that I wanted nothing but the materials, when it came 
into my mind that the twigs of that tree from whence 
j I cut my stakes that grew might possibly be as tough 
| as the sallows, and willows, and osiers in England, and 
I resolved to try. 

Accordingly the next day I went to my country-house, 
as I called it, and cutting some of the smaller twigs, I 
found them to my purpose as much as I could desire ; 
whereupon I came the next time prepared with a hatchet 
to cut down a quantity, which I soon found, for there 
was great plenty of them. These I set up to dry within 
my circle or hedge, and when they were fit for use I 
carried them to my cave, and here during the next sea- 
son I employed myself in making, as well as I could, a 
great many baskets, both to carry earth, or to carry or 
lay up anything as I had occasion; and though I did 
not finish them very handsomely, yet I made them suffi- 
ciently serviceable for my purpose ; and thus afterwards I 
took care never to be without them. And as my wicker- 
ware decayed I made more ; especially I made strong 
deep baskets to place my corn in instead of sacks, when 
I should come to have any quantity of it. 

Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world 
of time about it, I bestirred myself to see if possible 


128 


The Life and Adventures of 


how to supply two wants. I bad no vessels to hold any- 
thing that was liquid except two runlets, which were 
almost full of rum, and some glass bottles, some of the 
common size, and others which were case-bottles square, 
for the holding of water, spirits, etc. I had not so much 
as a pot to boil anything, except a great kettle, which 
I saved out of the ship, and which was too big for such 
use as I designed — namely, to make broth, and stew a 
bit of meat by itself. The second thing I would fain 
have had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible to 
me to make one ; however I found a contrivance for 
that too at last. 

I employed myself in planting my second rows of 
stakes or piles and in this wicker-working, all the sum- 
mer or dry season, when another business took me up 
more time than it could be imagined I could spare. 

I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see 
the whole island, and that I had travelled up the brook, 
and so on to where I built my bower, and where I had j 
an opening quite to the sea on the other side of the 
island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea- 
shore on that side ; so taking my gun, a hatchet, and my 
dog, and a larger quantity of powder and shot than 
usual, with two biscuit cakes, and a great bunch of rai- 
sins in my pouch for my store, I began my journey. 
When I had passed the vale where my bower stood as 
above, I came within view of the sea to the west, and 
it being a very clear day I fairly descried land, whether 
an island or a continent I could not tell ; but it lay very 
high, extending from the west to the west-southwest at 
a very great distance. By my guess it could not be less i 
than fifteen or twenty leagues off. 

I could not tell what part of the world this might be, 
otherwise than that I knew it must be part of America, j 


Robinson Crusoe 


129 


and, as I concluded by all my observations, must be near 
the Spanish dominions; and perhaps was all inhabited by 
savages, where, if I should have landed, I had been in a 
, worse condition than I was now ; and therefore I acqui- 
esced in the dispositions of Providence, which I began 
now to own and to believe ordered everything for the 
best ; I say I quieted my mind with this, and left afflict- 
ing myself with fruitless wishes of being there. 

Besides, after some pause upon this affair, I considered 
that if this land was the Spanish coast, I should cer- 
tainly, one time or other, see some vessel pass or repass 
one way or other ; but if not, then it was the savage 
coast between the Spanish country and Brazil, which are 
indeed the worst of savages, for they are cannibals, or 
men-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all the 
human bodies that fall into their hands. 

With these considerations I walked very leisurely for- 
I ward. I found that side of the island where I now was 
j much pleasanter than mine ; the open or savanna fields 
sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very 
fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I 
i would have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to 
be tame, and taught it to speak to me. I did, after 
some painstaking, catch a young parrot, for I knocked 
it down with a stick, and having recovered it I brought 
it home ; but it was some years before I could make him 
; speak. However, at last I taught him to call me by my 
name very familiarly. But the accident that followed, 

! though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place. 

* I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found 
1 in the low grounds hares, as I thought them to be, and 
foxes ; but they differed greatly from all the other kinds I 
| had met with, nor could I satisfy myself to eat them, though 
I killed several. But I had no need to be venturous, for 


K 


130 The Life and Adventures of 

I had no want of food, and of that which was very good 
too ; especially these three sorts — namely, goats, pigeons^ 
and turtle or tortoise, which, added to my grapes, Leaden- 
hall Market could not have furnished a table better than, 

I in proportion to the company. And though my case 
was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thankful- 
ness, and that I was not driven to any extremities for food, 
but rather plenty, even to dainties. 

I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright 1 
in a day, or thereabouts. But I took so many turns and ! 
returns to see what discoveries I could make that I came 1 
weary enough to the place where I resolved to sit down for 
all night ; and then I either reposed myself in a tree, or 1 
surrounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in the 1 
ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild 1 
creature could come at me without waking me. 

As soon as I came to the sea-shore I was surprised to ! 
see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the I 
island ; for here, indeed, the shore was covered with innu- i 
merable turtles, whereas on the other side I had found but i 
three in a year and a half. Here was also an infinite 1 
number of fowls of many kinds ; some which I had seen, 
and some which I had not seen of before — and many 
of them very good meat — but such as I knew not the 
names of, except those called penguins. 

• I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very 
sparing of my powder and shot, and therefore had more 1 
mind to kill a she-goat if I could, which I could better feed 
on ; and though there were many goats here — more than 
on my side the island — yet it was with much more diffi- 
culty that I could come near them, the country being flat 
and even, and they saw me much sooner than when I was 
on the hill. 

I confess this side of the country was much pleasanterl 


Robinson Crusoe 


13 1 

than mine ; but yet I had not the least inclination to re- 
move, for as I was fixed in my habitation, it became natu- 
ral to me, and I seemed all the while I was here to be as 
it were upon a journey, and from home. However, I 
travelled along the shore of the sea towards the east, I 
suppose about twelve miles ; and then, setting up a great 
pole upon the shore for a mark, I concluded I would go 
home again, and that the next journey I took should be 
on the other side of the island east from my dwelling, and 
so round till I came to my post again : of which in its 
place. 

I took another way to come back than that I went, 
thinking I could easily keep all the island so much in my 
view that I could not miss finding my first dwelling by 
viewing the country. But I found myself mistaken ; for 
being come about two or three miles, I found myself de- 
scended into a very large valley, but so surrounded with 
hills, and those hills covered with wood, that I could not 
see which was my way by any direction but that of the 
sun, nor even then, unless I knew very well the position 
of the sun at that time of the day. 

It happened, to my farther misfortune, that the weather 
proved hazy for three or four days while I was in this 
valley ; and not being able to see the sun, I wandered 
about very uncomfortably, and at last was obliged to find 
out the sea-side, look for my post, and come back the same 
way I went. And then by easy journeys I turned home- 
ward, the weather being exceeding hot, and my gun, am- 
munition, hatchet, and other things, very heavy. 

In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and 
seized upon it, and I running in to take hold of it, caught 
it, and saved it alive from the dog. I had a great mind 
to bring it home if I could ; for I had often been musing 
whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and 


1 3 2 


The Life and Adventures of 


so raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me 
when my powder and shot should be all spent. 

I made a collar to this little creature, and with a string 
which I made of some rope-yarn, which I always carried 
about me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till 
I came to my bower ; and there I enclosed him and left 
him, for I was very impatient to be at home, from whence 
I had been absent above a month. 

I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to 
come into my old hutch and lie down in my old hammock- 
bed. This little wandering journey, without settled place 
of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, 
as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me 
compared to that ; and it rendered everything about me 
so comfortable that I resolved I would never go a great 
way from it again while it should be my lot to stay on the 
island. 

I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself 
after my long journey ; during which most of the time was 
taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my 
poll, who began now to be a mere domestic, and to be 
mighty well acquainted with me. Then I began to think 
of the poor kid which I had penned in within my little 
circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home or give it some 
food. Accordingly I went, and found it where I left it ; 
for, indeed, it could not get out, but almost starved for 
want of food. I went and cut boughs of trees, and branches 
of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over ; and hav- 
ing fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it away. But 
it was so tame with being hungry that I had no need to 
have tied it, for it followed me like a dog ; and as I continu- 
ally fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and 
so fond, that it became from that time one of my domes- 
tics also, and would never leave me afterwards. 


Robinson Crusoe 


l 33 


The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now 
come, and I kept the 30th of September in the same solemn 
manner as before ; being the anniversary of my landing on 
the island, having now been there two years, and no more 
prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there. 

I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowl- 
edgments of the many wonderful mercies which my soli- 
tary condition was attended with, and without which it 
might have been infinitely more miserable. I gave humble 
and hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover 
to me even that it was possible I might be more happy in 
this solitary condition than I should have been in a liberty 
of society and in all the pleasures of the world ; that he 
could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary 
state, and the want of human society, by his presence, and 
the communications of his grace to my soul — supporting, 
comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon his provi- 
dence here, and hope for his eternal presence hereafter. 

It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more 
happy this life I now led was, with all its miserable cir- 
cumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led 
all the past part of my days. And now I changed both 
my sorrows and my joys : my very desires altered, my 
affections changed their gusts, and my delights were per- 
fectly new from what they were at my first coming, or 
indeed for the two years past. 

Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for 
viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my condi- 
tion would break out upon me on a sudden, and my very 
heart would die within me to think of the woods, the moun- 
tains, the deserts I was in, and how I was a prisoner locked 
up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an un- 
inhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst 
of the greatest composures of my mind, thi§ would break 




134 The Life and Adventures of 

out upon me like a storm, and make me wring my hands 
and weep like a child. Sometimes it would take me in 
the middle of my work ; and I would immediately sit down 
and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour or two 
together. And this was still worse to me ; for if I could 
burst out into tears or vent myself by words it would go 
off, and the grief, having exhausted itself, would abate. 

But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts. 

I daily read the Word of God, and applied all the comforts 
of it to my present state. One morning, being very sad, 

I opened the Bible upon these words, “ I will never leave 
thee, nor forsake thee.” Immediately it occurred that 
these words were to me. Why else should they be directed 
in such a manner, just at the moment when I was mourn- 
ing over my condition as one forsaken of God and man ? 
“Well, then,” said I, “if God does not forsake me, of what 
ill consequence can it be or what matters it, though the 
world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand if 
I had all the world, and should lose the favor and blessing 
of God, there would be no comparison in the loss ? ” 

From this moment I began to conclude in my mind 
that it was possible for me to be more happy in this for- 
saken, solitary condition, than it was probable I should 
ever have been in any other particular state in the world ; 
and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God 
for bringing me to this place. I know not what it was, 
but something shocked my mind at that thought, and I 
durst not speak the words. “ How canst thou be such a 
hypocrite,” said I, even audibly, “ to pretend to be thank- 
ful for a condition which, however thou mayst endeavor 
to be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to 
be delivered from ? ” So I stopped there. But though 
I could not say I thanked God for being there, yet I ! 
sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by 


Robinson Crusoe 


*35 


whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condi- 
tion of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness and 
repent. I never opened the Bible or shut it but my very 
soul within me blessed God for directing my friend in 
England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among 
my goods, and for assisting me afterwards to save it out 
of the wreck of the ship. 

Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my 
third year. And though I have not given the reader the 
trouble of so particular account of my works this year as 
the first, yet in general it may be observed that I was 
very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my time 
according to the several daily employments that were 
before me — such as, first, my duty to God and the read- 
ing the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart some 
time for thrice every day; secondly, the going abroad 
with my gun for food, which generally took me up three 
hours in every morning when it did not rain; thirdly, the 
ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking what I had 
killed or caught for my supply, — these took up great 
part of the day. Also it is to be considered that the 
middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the 
violence of the heat was too great to stir out, so that 
about four hours in the evening was all the time I could 
be supposed to work in; with this exception, that some- 
times I changed my hours of hunting and working, and 
went to work in the morning and abroad with my gun 
in the afternoon. 

To this short time allowed for labor I desire may 
be added the exceeding laboriousness of my work — the 
many hours which, for want of tools, want of help, and 
want of skill, everything I did took up out of my time. 
For example, I was full two-and-forty days making me 
a board for a long shelf which I wanted in my cave; 


136 The Life and Adventures of 

whereas two sawyers, with their tools and a saw-pit, 
would have cut six of them out of the same tree in half 
a day. 

My case was this : It was to be a large tree which 
was to be cut down, because my board was to be a broad 
one. This tree I was three days a cutting down, and 
two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a 
log or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and 
hewing I reduced both the sides of it into chips till it 
begun to be light enough to move; then I turned it, 
and made one side of it smooth and flat as a board from 
end to end ; then, turning that side downward, cut the 
other side, till I brought the plank to be about three 
inches thick, and smooth on both sides. Any one may 
judge the labor of my hands in such a piece of work ; 
but labor and patience carried me through that and 
many other things. I only observe this in particular, to 
show the reason why so much of my time went away 
with so little work — namely, that what might be a little 
to be done with help and tools, was a vast labor and 
required a prodigious time to do alone and by hand. 

But notwithstanding this, with patience and labor I 
went through many things ; and, indeed, everything that 
my circumstances made necessary to me to do, as will 
appear by what follows. 





Robinson Crusoe 


1 37 


IX. Crusoe protects his growing corn from 
birds and beasts — Makes a spade , some 
pottery , and a mortar to grind his corn 
— Teaches his parrot to talk — How he 
made his first bread — How he builds 
a boat , and is unable to get it to the 
sea — Some of his clothes and provisions 
begin to run short — Makes an umbrella. 


I was now — in the months of -November and Decem- 
ber — expecting my crop of barley and rice. The ground 
I had manured or dug up for them was not great ; 
for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the 
quantity of half a peck, for I had lost one whole crop 
by sowing in the dry season. But now my crop promised 
I very well, when on a sudden I found I was in danger of 
losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it 
was scarce possible to keep from, it: as, first, the goats, 
and wild creatures which I called hares, who, tasting the 
sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and day as soon 
as it came up, and ate it so close that it could get no 

! time to shoot up into stalk. 

This I saw no remedy for but by making an en- 
closure about it with a hedge ; which I did with a 
| great deal of toil, and the more because it required speed. 
I However, as my arable land was but small, suited to my 
crop, I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks’ 
time ; and shooting some of the creatures in the day- 
time, I set my dog to guard it in the night, tying him 
up to a stake at the gate, where he would stand and 


138 The Life and Adventures of 

bark all night long. So in a little time the enemies for- 
sook the place, and the corn grew very strong and well, 
and began to ripen apace. 

But as the beasts ruined me before while my corn was 
in the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now 
when it was in the ear ; for going along by the place to 
see how it throve, I saw my little crop surrounded with 
fowls of I know not how many sorts, who stood as it were 
watching till I should be gone. I immediately let fly 
among them, for I always had my gun with me. I had 
no sooner shot but there rose up a little cloud of fowls — 
which I had not seen at all — from among the corn itself. 

This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few 
days they would devour all my hopes ; that I should be 
starved, and never be able to raise a crop at all : and what 
to do I could not tell. However, I resolved not to lose my 
corn, if possible, though I should watch it night and day. 
In the first place, I went among it to see what damage was 
already done ; and found they had spoiled a good deal of 
it, but that, as it was yet too green for them, the loss was 
not so great but that the remainder was like to be a good 
crop if it could be saved. 

I stayed by it to load my gun ; and then coming away 
I could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees 
about me, as if they only waited till I was gone away. 
And the event proved it to be so ; for as I walked off as 
if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight but they 
dropped down one by one into the corn again. I was so 
provoked that I could not have patience to stay till more 
came on, knowing that every grain that they ate now was, 
as it might be said, a peck loaf to me in the consequence ; 
but coming up to the hedge I fired again, and killed three 
of them. This was what I wished for : so I took them up, 
and served them as we serve notorious thieves in England 


Robinson Crusoe 


l 39 


— namely, hanged them in chains for a terror to others. 
«, It is impossible to imagine almost that this should have 
such an effect as it had ; for the fowls would not only not 
come at the corn, but, in short, they forsook all that part 
' of the island, and I could never see a bird near the place 
as long as my scarecrows hung there. 

This I was very glad of, you may be sure ; and about 
the latter end of December, which was our second har- 
vest of the year, I reaped my crop. 

I was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut it 
down ; and all I could do was to make one as well as I 
could out of one of the broad swords or cutlasses which 
I saved among the arms out of the ship. However, as 
my first crop was but small, I had no great difficulty to 
cut it down. In short, I reaped it my way, for I cut 
nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great 
basket which I had made, and so rubbed it out with my 
hands ; and at the end of all my harvesting I found that 
out of my half-peck of seed I had near two bushels of 
rice and above two bushels and a half of barley — that 
is to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at that time. 

However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I 
foresaw that in time it would please God to supply me with 
bread. And yet here I was perplexed again : for I neither 
knew how to grind or make meal of my corn, or, indeed, 
how to clean it and part it ; nor, if made into meal, how to 
make bread of it ; and if how to make it, yet I knew not 
how to bake it. These things being added to my desire of 
having a good quantity of store, and to secure a constant 
supply, I resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to pre- 
serve it all for seed against the next season ; and in the 
meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to 
accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn 
and bread. 


140 


The Life and Adventures of 


It might be truly said that now I worked for my bread, j 
It is a little wonderful, and what I believe few people have 
thought much upon — namely, the strange multitude of ; b 
little things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, b 
dressing, making, and finishing this one article of bread, p 
I that was reduced to a mere state of nature found this to ti 
my daily discouragement, and was made more and more 
sensible of it every hour, even after I had got the first I $ 
handful of seed-corn ; which, as I have said, came up c 
unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise. ! 1 

First, I had no plough to turn up the earth, no spade or ; v 
shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by making a 1 1 
wooden spade, as I observed before. But this did my | 
work in but a wooden manner ; and though it cost me a t 
great many days to make it, yet for want of iron it not 
only wore out the sooner, but -made my work the harder, 
and made it be performed much worse. However, this I 
bore with, and was content to work it out with patience, 
and bear with the badness of the performance. When 
the corn was sowed I had no harrow, but was forced to go 
over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over 
it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or j 
harrow it. 

When it was growing and grown, I have observed al- 
ready, how many things I wanted, to fence it, secure it, 
mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from 
the chaff, and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it, 
sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it into bread, and 
an oven to bake it ; and yet all these things I did without, 
as shall be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable 
comfort and advantage to me too. All this, as I said, 
made everything laborious and tedious to me, but that 
there was no help for, neither was my time so much loss 
to me, because, as I had divided it, a certain part of it was 


Robinson Crusoe 


141 


every day appointed to these works. And as I resolved to 
use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity 
by me, I had the next six months to apply myself wholly 
by labor and invention to furnish myself with utensils 
proper for the performing all the operations necessary for 
the making of corn (when I had it) fit for my use. 

But, first, I was to prepare more land, for I had now 
seed enough to sow above an acre of ground. Before I 
did this I had a week’s work at least to make me a spade ; 
which, when it was done, was but a sorry one indeed, and 
very heavy, and required double labor to work with it. 

; However, I went through that, and sowed my seed in two 
; large flat pieces of ground as near my house as I could find 
them to my mind, and fenced them in with a good hedge, 
the stakes of which were all cut of that wood which I had 
! set before, and knew it would grow ; so that in one year’s 
time I knew I should have a quick or living hedge, that 
would want but little repair. This work was not so little 
as to take me up less than three months, because great 
part of that time was of the wet season, when I could not 
go abroad. 

Within doors — that is, when it rained, and I could not 
go out — I found employment on the following occasions, 
always observing that all the while I was at work I diverted 
myself with talking to my parrot, and teaching him to speak ; 
and I quickly learned him to know his own name, and 
at last to speak it out pretty loud — Poll, which was the 
first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth 
but my own. This, therefore, was not my work, but an 
assistant to my work ; for now, as I said, I had a great 
employment upon my hands, as follows — namely, I had 
long studied by some means or other to make myself some 
earthen vessels, which indeed I wanted sorely, but knew 
not where to come at them. However, considering the 


1 42 


The Life and Adventures of 


heat of the climate, I did not doubt but if I could find out 
any such clay, I might botch up some such pot as might, ; 
being dried in the sun, be hard enough and strong enough 
to bear handling, and to hold anything that was dry and|; 
required to be kept so. And as this was necessary in the' 
preparing corn, meal, etc., which was the thing I was upon, 

I resolved to make some as large as I could, and fit only * 
to stand like jars to hold what should be put into them. 

It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, 
to tell how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste ; 
what odd, misshapen ugly things I made; how many of 
them fell in, and how many fell out, the clay not being 
stiff enough to bear its own weight ; how many cracked i 
by the over-violent heat of the sun, being set out too 1 
hastily ; and how many fell in pieces with only removing I 
as well before as after they were dried ; and, in a word, ;t 
how, after having labored hard to find the clay, to dig it, j 
to temper it, to bring it home and work it, I could not make 
above two large earthen ugly things — I cannot call them I 
jars — in about two months’ labor. 

However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, 

I lifted them very gently up, and set them down again in 
two great wicker baskets which I had made on purpose 
for them, that they might not break ; and as between the 
pot and the basket there was a little room to spare, I 
stuffed it full of the rice and barley straw. And these 
two pots being to stand always dry, I thought would hold 
my dry corn, and perhaps the meal, when the corn was 
bruised. 

Though I miscarried so much in my design for large 
pots, yet I made several smaller things with better success 
— such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and 
pipkins, and any things my hand turned to ; and the heat 
of the sun baked them strangely hard. 


Robinson Crusoe 


*43 


But all this would not answer my end, which was to get 
‘ an earthen pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the fire, 
which none of these could do. It happened after some 
, time, making a pretty large fire for cooking my meat, when 
I went to put it out after I had done with it, I found a 
broken piece of one of my earthenware vessels in the fire 
burned as hard as a stone, and red as a tile. I was 
agreeably surprised to see it, and said to myself that cer- 
tainly they might be made to burn whole if they would 
burn broken. 

This set me to studying how to order my fire, so as to 
make it burn me some pots. I had no notion of a kiln, 
such as the potters burn in ; or of glazing them with lead, 
though I had some lead to do it with ; but I placed three 
. large pipkins and two or three pots in a pile, one upon 
another, and placed my firewood all round it, with a great 
heap of embers under them. I piled the fire with fresh 
fuel round the outside and upon the top, till I saw the pots 
in the inside red hot quite through, and observed that they 
did not crack at all. When I saw them clear red, I let 
them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till I found 
one of them, though it did not crack, did melt or run ; 
for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the 
violence of the heat, and would have run into glass if I had 
gone on, so I slacked my fire gradually, till the pots began 
to abate of the red color; and watching them all night 
that I might not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning 
I had three very good — I will not say handsome — pipkins 
and two other earthen pots as hard burned as could be 
desired, and one of them perfectly glazed with the running 
of the sand. 

After this experiment I need not say that I wanted 
no sort of earthenware for my use; but I must needs 
$ay, as to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, 


i 4 4 


The Life and Adventures of 


P 


as any one may suppose, when I had no way of making 
them but as the children make dirt-pies, or as a woman 
would make pies that never learned to raise paste. 

No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal 
to mine when I found I had made an earthen pot that 
would bear the fire; and I had hardly patience to stay 
till they were cold before I set one upon the fire again 
with some water in it to boil me some meat, which it did 
admirably well. And with a piece of a kid I made some 
very good broth, though I wanted oatmeal, and several 
other ingredients requisite to make it so good as I would 
have had it been. 

My next concern was, to get me a stone mortar to 
stamp or beat some corn in ; for as to the mill, there 
was no thought at arriving to that perfection of art with 
one pair of hands. To supply this want I was at a great 
loss ; for of all trades in the world, I was as perfectly 
unqualified for a stone-cutter as for any whatever ; neither 
had I any tools to go about it with. I spent many a day 
to find out a great stone big enough to cut hollow, and 
make fit for a mortar, and could find none at all, except 
what was in the solid rock, and which I had no way to 
dig or cut out; nor, indeed, were the rocks in the island 
of hardness sufficient, but were all of a sandy, crumbling 
stone, which neither would bear the weight of a heavy 
pestle, or would break the corn without filling it with 
sand. So after a great deal of time lost in searching for 
a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out for a 
great block of hard wood, which I found indeed much 
easier; and getting one as big as I had strength to stir, 
I rounded it, and formed it in the outside with my axe 
and hatchet, and then, with the help of fire and infinite 
labor, made a hollow place in it, as the Indians in Brazil 
make their canoes. After this I made a great heavy 


' 


Robinson Crusoe 


H5 


pestle or beater of the wood called the iron-wood, and 
p this I prepared and laid by against I had my next crop 
of corn, when I proposed to myself to grind, or rather 
pound, my corn into meal to make my bread. 

My next difficulty was to make a sieve, or search, to 
dress my meal, and to part it from the bran and the 
husk, without which I did not see it possible I could 
have any bread. This was a most difficult thing so much 
as but to think on ; for to be sure I had nothing like the 
necessary thing to make it — I mean fine thin canvas, or 
stuff to search the meal through. And here I was at 
a full stop for many months ; nor did I really know what 
to do. Linen I had none left, but what was mere rags. 
I had goats’ hair, but neither knew I how to weave it 
or spin it; and had I known how, here were no tools to 
work it with. All the remedy that I found for this was, 
that at last I did remember I had among the seamen’s 
clothes which were saved out of the ship some neck- 
cloths of calico or muslin ; and with some pieces of these 
I made three small sieves, but proper enough for the 
work. And thus I made shift for some years. How I 
did afterwards I shall show in its place. 

The baking part was the next thing to be considered, 
and how I should make bread when I came to have 
corn ; for, first, I had no yeast. As to that part, as there 
was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myself 
much about it; but for an oven I was indeed in great 
pain. At length I found out an experiment for that 
also, which was this — I made some earthen vessels very 
broad, but not deep ; that is to say, about two foot diame- 
ter, and not above nine inches deep ; these I burned in 
the fire, as I had done the other, and laid them by ; and 
when I wanted to bake, I made a great fire upon my 
hearth, which I had paved with some square tiles of my 


146 The Life and Adventures of 

own making and burning also — but I should not call 
them square. 

When the firewood was burned pretty much into embers, 
or live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as 
to cover it all over, and there I let them lie till the hearth 
was very hot; then sweeping away all the embers, I set 
down my loaf or loaves, and whelming down the earthen j 
pot upon them, drew the embers all round the outside 
of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat ; and thus, 
as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked my 
barley loaves, and became in little time a mere pastry- 
cook into the bargain ; for I made myself several cakes of 
the rice, and puddings. Indeed I made no pies, neither 
had I anything to put into them supposing I had, except 
the flesh either of fowls or goats. 

It need not be wondered at if all these things took me 
up most part of the third year of my abode here ; for it 
is to be observed that, in the intervals of these things, 

I had my new harvest and husbandry to manage; for I 
reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as 
well as I could, and laid it up in the ear in my large 
baskets till I had time to rub it out, for I had no floor 
to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash it with. 

And now indeed my stock of corn increasing, I really 
wanted to build my barns bigger. I wanted a place to 
lay it up in, for the increase of the corn now yielded me 
so much that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, 
and of the rice as much or more ; insomuch that now I 
resolved to begin to use it freely, for my bread had been 
quite gone a great while. Also I resolved to see what 
quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year, and to 
sow but once a year. 

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of 
barley and rice was much more than I could consume 


Robinson Crusoe 


H7 


in a year; so I resolved to sow just the same quantity 
every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such a 
quantity would fully provide me with bread, etc. 

All the while these things were doing, you may be 
sure my thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of 
land which I had seen from the other side of the island ; 
and I was not without secret wishes that I were on 
shore there, fancying the seeing the mainland, and in 
an inhabited country I might find some way or other to 
convey myself farther, and perhaps at last find some 
means of escape. 

But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers 
of such a condition, and how I might fall into the hands 
of savages, and perhaps such as I might have reason 
to think far worse than the lions and tigers of Africa. 
That if I once came into their power, I should run a 
hazard more than a thousand to one of being killed, and 
perhaps of being eaten ; for I had heard that the people 
of the Caribbean coasts were cannibals, or man-eaters ; 
and I knew by the latitude that I could not be far off from 
that shore : that suppose they were not cannibals, yet that 
they might kill me, as many Europeans who had fallen 
into their hands had been served, even when they had been 
ten or twenty together, much more I that was but one, and 
could make little or no defence ; all these' things, I say, 
which I ought to have considered well of, and did cast up 
in my thoughts afterwards, yet took up none of my appre- 
hensions at first; but my head ran mightily upon the 
thought of getting over to the shore. 

Now I wished for my boy Xury and the long-boat with 
the shoulder-of-mutton sail, with which I sailed above a 
thousand miles on the coast of Africa ; but this was in vain. 
Then I thought I would go and look at our ship’s boat, 
which, as I have said, was blown up upon the shore a great 


148 


The Life and Adventures of 


way in the storm when we were first cast away. She lay 
almost where she did at first, but not quite ; and was turned 
by the force of the waves and the winds almost bottom 
upward against a high ridge of beachy rough sand, but no 
water about her as before. 

If I had had hands to have refitted her, and to have 
launched her into the water, the boat would have done well 
enough, and I might have gone back into the Brazils with 
her easily enough ; but I might have foreseen that I could 
no more turn her and set her upright upon her bottom 
than I could remove the island. However, I went to the 
woods and cut levers and rollers, and brought them to the 
boat, resolved to try what I could do, suggesting to myself 
that if I could but turn her down, I might easily repair the 
damage she had received, and she would be a very good 
boat, and I might go to sea in her very easily. 

I spared no pains indeed in this piece of fruitless toil, 
and spent, I think, three or four weeks about it. At last, 
finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength, 
I fell to digging away the sand to undermine it, and so to 
make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and 
guide it right in the fall. 

But when I had done this I was unable to stir it up 
again or to get under it, much less to move it forward 
towards the water, so I was forced to give it over ; and yet, 
though I gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to 
venture over for the main increased rather than decreased 
as the means for it seemed impossible. 

This at length put me upon thinking whether it was not 
possible to make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as the 
natives of those climates make, even without tdols, or, as I 
might say, without hands — namely, of the trunk of a great 
tree. This I not only thought possible but easy, and 
pleased myself extremely with the thoughts of making it, 


Robinson Crusoe 


H9 


and with my having much more convenience for it than 
any of the negroes or Indians ; but not at all considering 
the particular inconveniences which I lay under more than 
the Indians did — namely, want of hands to move it, when 
it was made, into the water, a difficulty much harder for 
me to surmount than all the consequences of want of tools 
could be to them. For what was it to me, that when I had 
chosen a vast tree in the woods, I might with much trouble 
cut it down, if after I might be able with my tools to hew 
and dub the outside into the proper shape of a boat, and 
O burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so to make a 
boat of it, — if, after all this, I must leave it just there 
where I found it, and was not able to launch it into the 
water. 

One would have thought I could not have had the least 
reflection upon my mind of my circumstance while I was 
making this boat, but I should have immediately thought 
how I should get it into the sea. But my thoughts were 
so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it, that I never 
once considered how I should get it off of the land ; and 
it was really in its own nature more easy for me to guide it 
over forty-five miles of sea, than about forty-five fathom of 
land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water. 

I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that 
ever man did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased 
myself with the design, without determining whether I was 
ever able to undertake it; not but that the difficulty of 
launching my boat came often into my head, but I put a 
stop to my own inquiries into it, by this foolish answer 
which I gave myself, “Let’s first make it; I’ll warrant I’ll 
find some y/ay or other to get it along when ’tis done.” 

This was a most preposterous method ; but the eager- 
, ness of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went. I felled 
a cedar tree — I question much whether Solomon ever had 


150 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 


such a one for the building of the temple at Jerusalem! 
It was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next 
the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end 
of twenty-two feet, after which it lessened for a while, and 
then parted into branches. It was not without infinite 
labor that I felled this tree. I was twenty days hacking 
and hewing at it at the bottom. I was fourteen more 
getting the branches and limbs and the vast spreading head 
of it cut off, which I hacked and hewed through with axe 
and hatchet, and inexpressible labor. After this it cost me 
a month to shape it and dub it to a proportion, and to some- 
thing like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright 
as it ought to do. It cost me near three months more 
to clear the insidfe, and work it out so as to make an exact 
boat of it. This I did indeed without fire, by mere mallet 
and chisel, and by the dint of hard labor, till I had brought 
it to be a very handsome periagua, and big enough to have 
carried six-and-twenty men, and consequently big enough 
to have carried me and all my cargo. 

When I had gone through this work I was extremely 
delighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than 
I ever saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, 
in my life. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be 
sure, and there remained nothing but to get it into the water ; 
and had I gotten it into the water, I make no question but 
I should have begun the maddest voyage, and the most 
unlikely to be performed, that ever was undertaken. 

But all my devices to get it into the water failed me, 
though they cost me infinite labor too. It lay about one 
hundred yards from the water, and not more ; but the first 
inconvenience was, it was up-hill towards the creek. Well, 
to take away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into 
the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity. This I 
began, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains ; — but who 





152 The Life and Adventures of 

grudge pains that have their deliverance in view ? But 
when this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, 
it was still much at one ; for I could no more stir the canoe 
than I could the other boat. 

Then I measured the distance of ground, and resolved 
to cut a dock or canal to bring the water up to the canoe, 
seeing I could not bring the canoe down to the water. 
Well, I began this work, and when I began to enter it, 
and calculate how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how 
the stuff to be thrown out, I found, that by the number of 
hands I had, being none but my own, it must have been 
ten or twelve years before I should have gone through 
with it ; for the shore lay high, so that at the upper end it 
must have been at least twenty foot deep. So at length, 
though with great reluctancy, I gave this attempt over 
also. 

This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too 
late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the 
cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to 
go through with it. 

In the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in 
this place, and kept my anniversary with the same devo- 
tion, and with as much comfort as ever before ; for by a 
constant study and serious application of the Word of God, 
and by the assistance of his grace, I gained a different 
knowledge from what I had before. I entertained differ- 
ent notions of things. I looked now upon the world as a 
thing remote, which I had nothing to do with, no expecta- 
tion from, and indeed no desires about : in a word, I had 
nothing indeed to do with it, nor was ever like to have. 
So I thought it looked as we may perhaps look upon it 
hereafter — namely, as a place I had lived in, but was 
come out of it ; and well might I say, as Father Abraham 
to Dives, “ Between me and thee is a great gulf fixed.” 


Robinson Crusoe 


l 53 


In the first place, I was removed from all the wicked- 
ness of the world here ; I had neither the lust of the flesh 
the lust of the eye, nor the pride of life. I had nothing to 
covet, for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying. I 
was lord of the whole manor ; or, if I pleased, I might call 
myself king or emperor over the whole country which I 
had possession of. There were no rivals ; I had no com- 
petitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command with me. 
I might have raised ship-loadings of corn, but I had no 
use for it ; so I let as little grow as I thought enough for 
my occasion. I had tortoise or turtles enough ; but now 
and then one was as much as I could put to any use. I 
had timber enough to have built a fleet of ships. I had 
grapes enough to have made wine, or to have cured into 
raisins, to have loaded that fleet when they had been built. 

But all I could make use of was all that was valuable. I 
had enough to eat and to supply my wants, and what was 
all the rest to me ? If I killed more flesh than I could eat, 
the dog must eat it, or the vermin. If I sowed more corn 
than I could eat, it must be spoiled. The trees that I cut 
down were lying to rot on the ground ; I could make no 
more use of them than for fuel, and that I had no occasion 
for but to dress my food. 

In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated 
to me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this 
world are no further good to us than they are for our use ; 
and that whatever we may heap up indeed to give others, 
we enjoy just as much as we can use, and no more. The 
most covetous griping miser in the world would have 
been cured of the vice of covetousness if he had been in 
my case, for I possessed infinitely more than I knew what 
to do with. I had no room for desire, except it was of 
things which I had not, and they were but trifles, though 
indeed of great use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a 


154 The Life and Adventures of 

parcel of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six 
pounds sterling. Alas ! there the nasty, sorry, useless 
stuff lay ; I had no manner of business for it ; and I often 
thought with myself that I would have given a handful of 
it for a gross of tobacco pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind 
my corn ; nay, I would have given it all for sixpenny-worth 
of turnip and carrot seed out of England, or for a handful 
of peas and beans and a bottle of ink. As it was, I had 
not the least advantage by it or benefit from it, but there 
it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the 
cave in the wet season ; and if I had had the drawer full 
of diamonds it had been the same case, and they had been 
of no manner of value to me, because of no use. 

I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in 
itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as 
well as to my body. I frequently sat down to my meat 
with thankfulness, and admired the hand of God’s provi- 
dence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness. 
I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condi- 
tion and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I 
enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me 
sometimes such secret comforts that I cannot express 
them, and which I take notice of here to put those dis- 
contented people in mind of it who cannot enjoy comfort- 
ably what God has given them because they see and covet 
something that he has not given them. All our discontents 
about what we want appeared to me to spring from the 
want of thankfulness for what we have. 

Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless 
would be so to any one that should fall into such distress 
as mine was, and this was, to compare my present condition 
with what I at first expected it should be, nay, with what 
it would certainly have been if the good providence of 
God had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up 


Robinson Crusoe 


*55 


nearer to the shore, where I not only could come at her, 
but could bring what I got out of her to the shore, for my 
relief and comfort ; without which I had wanted for tools 
to work, weapons for defence, or gunpowder and shot for 
* getting my food. 

I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in repre- 
senting to myself in the most lively colors how I must 
9 have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship ; how I 
could not have so much as got any food except fish and 
turtles, and that as it was long before I found any of 
them, I must have perished first: that I should have lived, 
y if I had not perished, like a mere savage ; that if I had 
killed a goat or a fowl by any contrivance, I had no way 
to flay or open them, or part the flesh from the skin and 
the bowels, or to cut it up, but must gnaw it with my 
teeth, and pull it with my claws like a beast 

These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness 
of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present 
^ condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes. And 
this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection 
of those who are apt in their misery to say, “ Is any 
‘ affliction like mine ? ” Let them consider how much worse 
the cases of some people are, and their case might have 
been, if Providence had thought fit. 
y I had another reflection which assisted me also to com- 
fort my mind with hopes, and this was, comparing my 
present condition with what I had deserved, and had 
k therefore reason to expect from the hand of Providence. 
I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the 
knowledge and fear of God. I had been well instructed 
r by father and mother, neither had they been wanting to 
me, in their early endeavors, to infuse a religious awe 
of God into my mind, a sense of my duty, and of what 
the nature and end of my being required of me. But, 


The Life and Adventures of 


156 






alas! falling early into the seafaring life, which of all the 
lives is the most destitute of the fear of God, though hisj 
terrors are always before them ; I say, falling early into 
the seafaring life, and into seafaring company, all that 
little sense of religion which I had entertained was laughed 
out of me by my messmates, by a hardened despising of 
dangers and the views of death, which grew habitual to 
me, by my long absence from all manner of opportunities 
to converse with anything but what was like myself, or 
to hear anything that was good, or tended towards it. 

So void was I of everything that was good, or of the 
least sense of what I was, or was to be, that in the great- 
est deliverances I enjoyed — such as my escape from 
Sallee, my being taken up by the Portuguese master of the 
ship, my being planted so well in the Brazils, my re- 
ceiving the cargo from England, and the like — I never 
had once the word “ Thank God ” so much as on my 
mind, or in my mouth ; nor in the greatest distress had I 
so much as a thought to pray to him, or so much as to say, 
“ Lord, have mercy upon me ; ” no, nor to mention the 
name of God, unless it was to swear by and blaspheme it. 

I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many 
months, as I have already observed, on the account of my 
wicked and hardened life past ; and when I looked about 
me, and considered what particular providences had at- 
tended me since my coming into this place, and how God 
had dealt bountifully with me — had not only punished 
me less than my iniquity had deserved, but had so plenti- 
fully provided for me ; this gave me great hopes that my 
repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercy in 
store for me. 

With these reflections I worked my mind up not only to 
resignation to the will of God in the present disposition of 
my circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness for 


Robinson Crusoe 


J 57 


ay condition ; and that I, who was yet a living man, 
■light not to complain, seeing I had not the due punish- 
aent of my sins ; that I enjoyed so many mercies which I 
tad no reason to have expected in that place ; that I ought 
lever more to repine at my condition, but to rejoice, and 
o give daily thanks for that daily bread which nothing 
>ut a crowd of wonders could have brought : that I ought 
o consider I had been fed even by miracle, even as great 
-s that of feeding Elijah by ravens; nay, by a long 
eries of miracles : and that I could hardly have named a 
! >lace in the unhabitable part of the world where I could 
lave been cast more to my advantage — a place where, as 
had no society, which was my affliction on one hand, so 
| found no ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers, to 
hreaten my life, no venomous creature or poisonous, which 
might feed on to my hurt, no savages to murder and 
levour me. 

1 In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way, so 
t was a life of mercy another ; and I wanted nothing to 
I nake it a life of comfort but to be able to make my sense 
if God’s goodness to me and care over me in this condi- 
tion be my daily consolation. And after I did make a just 
mprovement of these things, I went away and was no 
nore sad. 

I had now been here so long that many things which I 
Drought on shore for my help were either quite gone or 
zery much wasted and near spent. 

My ink, as I observed, had been gone for some time, all 
but a very little, which I eked out with water a little and 
a little till it was so pale it scarce left any appearance of 
black upon the paper. As long as it lasted I made use 
of it to minute down the days of the month on which any 
remarkable thing happened to me, and first by casting up 
times past. I remember that there was a strange concur- 


The Life and Adventures of 


158 

rence of days in the various providences which befell me,} 
and which, if I had been superstitiously inclined to observe 1 
days as fatal or fortunate, I might have had reason to have 
looked upon with a great deal of curiosity. 

First, I had observed that the same day that I brok^ 
away from my father and my friends, and ran away to 
Hull, in order to go to sea, the same day afterwards I wasi, 
taken by the Sallee man-of-war, and made a slave. 

The same day of the year that I escaped out of the 
wreck of that ship in Yarmouth Roads, that same day- 
year afterwards I made my escape from Sallee in the 
boat. 

The same day of the year I was born on — namely the 1 
30th of September — the same day I had my life so 1 
miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when I was cast 1 
on shore on this island, so that my wicked life and my | 
solitary life began both on a day. 

The next thing to my ink’s being wasted was that of 
my bread — I mean the biscuit which I brought out of the 
ship. This I had husbanded to the last degree, allowing 
myself but one cake of bread a day for above a year, and 
yet I was quite without bread for near a year before I got 
any corn of my own ; and great reason I had to be thank- 
ful that I had any at all, the getting it being, as has been 
already observed, next to miraculous. * 

My clothes began to decay too mightily. As to linen, 

I had had none a good while, except some checkered 
shirts which I found in the chests of the other seamen, ' 
and which I carefully preserved, because many times I ! 
could bear no other clothes on but a shirt : and it was a 
very great help to me that I had among all the men’s 
clothes of the ship almost three dozen of shirts. There 
were also several thick watch-coats of the seamen’s, which 
were left indeed, but they were too hot to wear. And 


Robinson Crusoe 


59 


t though it is true that the weather was so violently hot that 
there was no need of clothes, yet I could not go quite 
i naked : no, though I had been inclined to it, which I was 
not, nor could not abide the thoughts of it, though I was 
» all alone. 

, The reason why I could not go quite naked was, I could 
i not bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked as 
with some clothes on ; nay, the very heat frequently blis- 
. tered my skin, whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made 
, some motion, and whistling under that shirt, was twofold 
, cooler than without it. No more could I ever bring myself 
to go out in the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat, the 
heat of the sun beating with such violence as it does in 
( that place would give me the headache presently, by dart- 
ing so directly on my head without a cap or hat on, so that 
; I could not bear it, whereas, if I put on my hat, it would 
| presently go away. 

Upon those views I began to consider about putting the 
few rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order. I 
had worn out all the waistcoats I had, and my business 
was now to try if I could not make jackets out of the great 
watch-coats which I had by me, and with such other mate- 
1 rials as I had ; so I set to work a-tailoring, or rather indeed 
: a-botching, for I made most piteous work of it. However 
I made shift to make two or three new waistcoats, which 
I hoped would serve me a great while. As for breeches or 
j drawers, I made but a very sorry shift indeed till afterward. 

! I have mentioned that I saved the skins of alj the crea- 
tures that I killed — I mean four-footed ones — and I had 
j hung them up stretched out with sticks in the sun, by 
which means some of them were so dry and hard that they 
were fit for little, but others it seems were very useful. 
The first thing I made of these was a great cap for my 
head, with the hair on the outside to shoot off the rain ; 


160 The Life and Adventures of 

and this I performed so well, that after this I made me 
a suit of clothes wholly of these skins — that is to say, a 
waistcoat, and breeches open at knees, and both loose, foi 
they were rather wanting to keep me cool than to keep) 
me warm. I must not omit to acknowledge that they 
were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad carpenter, I !| 
was a worse tailor. However, they were such as I madd 
very good shift with. And when I was abroad, if it hap- 
pened to rain, the hair of my waistcoat and cap being 
outermost I was kept very dry. 

After this I spent a great deal of time and pains to make! 
me an umbrella. I was indeed in great want of one, and 1 
had a great mind to make one. I had seen them made in 
the Brazils, where they are very useful in the great heats! 
which are there ; and I felt the heats every jot as great] 
here, and greater too, being nearer the equinox. Besides,! 
as I was obliged to be much abroad, it was a most useful! 
thing to me, as well for the rains as the heats. I took a 
world of pains at it, and was a great while before I could 
make anything likely to hold ; nay, after I thought I had 
hit the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one to 
my mind, but at last I made one that answered indiffer-i 
ently well. The main difficulty I found was to make it to 
let down. I could make it to spread, but if it did not let 
down too and draw in, it was not portable for me any way 
but just over my head, which would not do. However, at 
last, as I said, I made one to answer, and covered it with 
skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rains like a 
penthouse, and kept off the sun so effectually that I could 
walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advan- 
tage than I could before in the coolest ; and when I had 
no need of it, could close it and carry it under my arm. 

Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely 
composed by resigning to the will of God, and throwing 


Robinson Crusoe 


1 6 1 


myself wholly upon the disposal of his providence. This 
made my life better than sociable ; for when I began to 
regret the want of conversation I would ask myself whether 
thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and, as 
I hope I may say, with even God himself by ejaculations, 
was not better than the utmost enjoyment of human society 
n the world. 





M 


\6i 


The Life and Adventures of 


X. 


Crusoe makes and launches a boat — 
Sails partly around the island — He 
is in danger from fierce currents — But 
succeeds in getting back to shore — Re- 
turns to his home — His parrot greets 
him — Makes more perfect earthenware 
and wicker baskets — Snares goats , 
which give him milk and butter and 
cheese — Describes his personal appear- 
ance , his home , and his family — Starts 
on a new journey through the island. 


I cannot say that after this, for five years, any extraor- ] 
dinary thing happened to me, but I lived on in the same j s 
course, in the .same posture and place, just as before. 
The chief things I was employed in, besides my yearly 
labor of planting my barley and rice and curing my raisins, (■.. 
of both which I always kept up just enough to have suffi- • 
cient stock of one year’s provisions beforehand ; I say, r 
besides this yearly labor and my daily labor of going out 
with my gun, I had one labor to make me a canoe, which 
at last I finished ; so that, by digging a canal to it of six 
feet wide and four feet deep, I brought it into the creek, k 
almost half a mile. As for the first, which was so vastly : 
big, as I made it without considering beforehand, as I ■ | 
ought to do, how I should be able to launch it, so never 
being able to bring it to the water, or bring the water to 
it, I was obliged to let it lie where it was, as a memorandum , 
to teach me to be wiser next time. Indeed, the next time, Sl 
though I could not get a tree proper for it, and in a place 


Robinson Crusoe 


163 

where I could not get the water to it, at any less distance 
than as I have said, near half a mile ; yet, as I saw it was 
practicable at last, I never gave it over ; and though I was 
near two years about it, yet I never grudged my labor, in 
hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last. 

However, though my little periagua was finished, yet 
the size of it was not at all answerable to the design which 
I had in view when I made the first — I mean, of venturing 
over to the terra finna, where it was above forty miles broad. 
Accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted to put an 
end to that design, and now I thought no more of it. But 
as I had a boat, my next design was to make a tour round 
the island ; for as I had been on the other side in one 
place, crossing, as I have already described it, over the 
land, so the discoveries I made in that little journey made 
me very eager to see other parts of the coast ; and now 
I had a boat, I thought of nothing but sailing round the 
island. 

For this purpose, that I might do everything with dis- 
cretion and consideration, I fitted up a little mast to my 
boat, and made a sail to it out of some of the pieces of 
the ship’s sail, which lay in store, and of which I had a 
great stock by me. 

Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, I 
found she would sail very well. Then I made little lockers, 
or boxes, at either end of my boat, to put provisions, neces- 
saries, and ammunition, etc., into, to be kept dry either from 
rain or the spray of the sea ; and a little long hollow place 
I cut in the inside of the boat, where I could lay my gun, 
making a flap to hang down over it to keep it dry. 

I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a 
mast, to stand over my head, and keep the heat of the 
;un off me like an awning; and thus I every now and 
hen took a little voyage upon the sea, but never went 


164 


The Life and Adventures of 


far out, not far from the little creek. But at last, being 
eager to view the circumference of my little kingdom, I 
resolved upon my tour, and accordingly I victualled my 
ship for the voyage, putting in two dozen of my loaves 
(cakes I should rather call them) of barley bread, an 
earthen pot full of parched rice — a food I ate a great deal 
of — a little bottle of rum, half a goat, and powder and 
shot for killing more, and two large watch-coats of those 
which, as I mentioned before, I had saved out of the 
seamen’s chests : these I took, one to lie upon, and the 
other to cover me in the night. 

It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my 
reign, or my captivity, which you please, that I set out on 
this voyage, and I found it much longer than I expected. 
For though the island itself was not very large, yet, when 
I came to the east side of it, I found a great ledge of 
rocks lie out above two leagues into the sea, some above 
water, some under it ; and beyond that a shoal of sand, 
lying dry half a league more. So that I was obliged to 
go a great way out to sea to double the point. 

When first I discovered them I was going to give over 
my enterprise and come back again, not knowing how far 
it might oblige me to go out to sea ; and above all, doubting 
how I should get back again ; so I came to an anchor — 
for I had made me a kind of an anchor with a piece of 
a broken grapling, which I got out of the ship. 

Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went on 
shore, climbing up upon a hill which seemed to overlook 
that point, where I saw the full extent of it, and resolved 
to venture. 

In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I 
perceived a strong, and indeed a most furious current, 
which ran to the east, and even came close to the point. 
And I took the more notice of it, because I saw there 


Robinson Crusoe 


165 

might be some danger that when I came into it I might 
be carried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be able 
to make the island again. And, indeed, had I not gotten 
first up upon this hill, I believe it would have been so ; for 
there was the same current on the other side the island, 
only that it set off at a farther distance. And I saw there 
was a strong eddy under the shore ; so I had nothing to do 
but to get in out of the first current, and I should presently 
be in an eddy. 

I lay here, however, two days, because the wind blowing 
pretty fresh at east-south-east, and that being just contrary 
to the said current, made a great breach of the sea upon 
the point ; so that it was not safe for me to keep too close 
to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off because 
of the stream. 

The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated 
overnight, the sea was calm, and I ventured. But I am 
a warning piece again to all rash and ignorant pilots ; for 
no sooner was I come to the point, when even I was not 
my boat’s length from the shore, but I found myself in a 
great depth of water, and a current like the sluice of a mill. 
It carried my boat along with it with such violence that all 
I could do could not keep her so much as on the edge of 
it ; but I found it hurried me farther and farther out from 
the eddy, which was on my left hand. There was no wind 
stirring to help me ; and all I could do with my paddlers 
signified nothing. And now I began to give myself over 
for lost ; for as the current was on both sides the island, 
I knew in a few leagues distance they must join again, and 
then I was irrecoverably gone. Nor did I see any possi- 
bility of avoiding it ; so that I had no prospect before me 
but of perishing — not by the sea, for that was calm enough, 
but of starving for hunger. I had, indeed, found a tortoise 
on the shore as big almost as I could lift, and had tossed 


1 66 


The Life and Adventures of 


it into the boat; and I had a great jar of fresh water — 
that is to say, one of my earthen pots ; but what was all i 
this to being driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, f 
there was no shore, no mainland or island for a thousand 
leagues at least ! 

And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of 
God to make the most miserable condition mankind could . 
be in, worse. Now I looked back upon my desolate soli- 
tary island as the most pleasant place in the world, and ! 
all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but j 
there again. I stretched out my hands to it with eager 
wishes. “ O happy desert,” said I, “ I shall never see 
thee more ! O miserable creature,” said I, “ whither am 
I going ? ” Then I reproached myself with my unthank- 
ful temper, and how I had repined at my solitary condition ; 
and now what would I give to be on shore there again ! , 
Thus we never see the true state of our condition, till it is 
illustrated to us by its contraries ; nor know how to value 
what we enjoy, but by the want of it. It is scarce possible 
to imagine the consternation I was now in, being "driven 
from my beloved island (for so it appeared to me now to 
be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the , 
utmost despair of ever recovering it again. However, I 
worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost exhausted, 
and kept my boat as much to the northward — that is, l 
towards the side of the current which the eddy lay on — 
as possibly I could ; when about noon, as the sun passed 
the meridian, I thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my 
face, springing up from the south-southeast. This cheered 
my heart a little, and especially when in about half an hour 
more it blew a pretty small gentle gale. By this time I 
was gotten at a frightful distance from the island, and had 
the least cloud or hazy weather intervened, I had been 
undone another way too ; for I had no compass on board, 


Robinson Crusoe 


167 

and should never have known how to have steered towards 
the island, if I had but once lost sight of it. But the 
weather continuing clear, I applied myself to get up my 
mast again, and spread my sail, standing away to the north 
as much as possible,- to get out of the current. 

Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began 
to stretch away, I saw even by the clearness of the water 
some alteration of the current was near ; for where the 
current was so strong, the water was foul ; but perceiving 
the water clear, I found the current abate, and presently I 
found to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea 
upon some rocks. These rocks, I found, caused the cur- 
rent to part again, and as the main stress of it ran away 
more southerly, leaving the rocks to the northeast, so the 
other returned by the repulse of the rocks, and made a 
strong eddy, which ran back again to the northwest, with 
a very sharp stream. 

They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to 
them upon the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just 
going to murder them, or who have been in such like ex- 
tremities, may guess what my present surprise of joy was, 
and how gladly I put my boat into the stream of this eddy, 
and, the wind also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail 
to it, running cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong 
tide or eddy under foot. 

This eddy carried me about a league in my way back 
again directly towards the island, but about two leagues 
more to the northward than the current which carried me 
away at first ; so that when I came near the island, I found 
myself open to the northern shore of it — that is to say, 
the other end of the island opposite to that which I went 
out from. 

When I had made something more than a league of way 
by the help of this current or eddy, I found it was spent, 


1 68 


The Life and Adventures of 


and served me no farther. However, I found that being 
between the two great currents, namely, that on the south 
side, which had hurried me away, and that on the north, 
which lay about a league on the other side : I say, between 
these two, in the wake of the island, I found the water at 
least still and running no way ; and having still a breeze 
of wind fair for me, I kept on steering directly for the 
island, though not making such fresh way as I did before. 

About four o’clock in the evening, being then within 
about a league of the island, I found the point of the rocks 
which occasioned this disaster stretching out, as is described 
before, to the southward, and casting off the current more 
southwardly had of course made another eddy to the north ; 
and this I found very strong, but not directly setting the 
way my course lay, which was due west, but almost full 
north. However, having a fresh gale, I stretched across 
this eddy slanting north west, and in about an hour came 
within about a mile of the shore, where, it being smooth 
water, I soon got to land. 

When I was on shore, I fell on my knees and gave God 
thanks 1 for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all 
thoughts of my deliverance by my boat; and refreshing 
myself with such things as I had, I brought my boat close 
to the shore in a little cove that I had spied under some 
trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with 
the labor and fatigue of the voyage. 

I was now at a great loss which way to get home with 
my boat. I had run so much hazard, and knew too much 
the case, to think of attempting it by the way I went out ; 
and what might be at the other side (I mean the west side) 
I knew not, nor had I any mind to run any more ventures ; 
so I only resolved in the morning to make my way west- 
ward along the shore, and to see if there was no creek 
where I might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have 


Robinson Crusoe 


169 

her again if I wanted her. In about three mile, or there- 
about, coasting the shore, I came to a very good inlet or 
bay about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very 
little rivulet or brook, where I found a very convenient har- 
bor for my boat, and where she lay as if she had been in a 
little dock made on purpose for her. Here I put in, and 
having stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore to look 
about me and see where I was. 

I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where 
I had been before, when I travelled on foot to that 
shore ; so taking nothing out of my boat but my gun and 
my umbrella, for it was exceeding hot, I began my march. 
The way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as 
I had been upon, and I reached my old bower in the even- 
ing, where I found everything standing as I left it ; for I 
always kept it in good order, being, as I said before, my 
country house, 

I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to 
rest my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep. But 
judge you, if you can, that read my story, what a surprise 
I must be in, when I was waked out of my sleep by a 
voice calling me by my name several times, “ Robin, Ro.bin, 
Robin Crusoe ; poor Robin Crusoe ! Where are you, Robin 
Crusoe ? Where are you ? Where have you been ? ” 

I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, 
or paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and 
with walking the latter part, that I did not wake thor- 
oughly ; but dozing between sleeping and waking, thought 
I dreamed that somebody spoke to me. But as the voice 
continued to repeat, “Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,” at 
last I began to wake more perfectly, and was at first dread- 
fully frightened, and started up in the utmost consterna- 
tion. But no sooner were my eyes open, but I saw my 
Poll sitting on the top of the hedge, and immediately knew 


170 The Life and Adventures of 

that it was he that spoke to me ; for just in such bemoan- 
ing language I had used to talk to him, and teach him ; 
and he had learned it so perfectly, that he would sit upon 
my finger, and lay his bill close to my face, and cry, “ Poor 
Robin Crusoe, where are you ? Where have you been ? 
How come you here ? ” and such things as I had taught him. 

However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and 
that indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while 
before I could compose myself : first, I was amazed how 
the creature got thither, and then how he should just keep 
about the place, and nowhere else. But as I was well sat- 
isfied it could be nobody but honest Poll, I got it over ; and 
holding out my hand, and calling him by his name Poll, 
the sociable creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, 
as he used to do, and continued talking to me, “ Poor 
Robin Crusoe,” and “ How did I come here ? ” and “ Where 
had I been?” just as if he had been overjoyed to see me 
again ; and so I carried him home along with me. 

I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, 
and had enough to do for many days to sit still and reflect 
upon the danger I had been in. I would have been very 
glad to have had my boat again on my side of the island ; 
but I knew not how it was practicable to get it about. As 
to the east side of the island, which I had gone round, I 
knew well enough there was no venturing that way ; my 
very heart would shrink, and my very blood run chill but 
to think of it. And as to the other side of the island, I 
did not know how it might be there ; but supposing the 
current ran with the same force against the shore at the 
east as it passed by it on the other, I might run the same risk 
of being driven down the stream, and carried by the island, 
as I had been before of being carried away from it ; so 
with these thoughts I contented myself to be without any 
boat, though it had been the product of so many months’ 


Robinson Crusoe 


171 

I labor to make it, and of so many more to get it unto the 
sea. 

In this government of my temper I remained near a 
year — lived a very sedate, retired life, as you may well 
suppose ; and my thoughts being very much composed as 
to my condition, and fully comforted in resigning myself 
to the dispositions of Providence, I thought I lived really 
very happily in all things, except that of society. 

I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exer- 
cises which my necessities put me upon applying myself 
to, and I believe could, upon occasion, make a very good 
carpenter, especially considering how few tools I had. 

Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my 
earthenware, and contrived well enough to make them with 
; a wheel, which I found infinitely easier and better ; because 
I made things round and shapable, which before were 
filthy things indeed to look on. But I think I was never 
' more vain of my own performance, or more joyful for any- 
thing I found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco- 
pipe. And though it was a very ugly clumsy thing when 
it was done, and only burned red like other earthenware, 
yet, as it was hard and firm, and would draw the smoke, I 
was exceedingly comforted with it ; for I had been always 
used to smoke, and there were pipes in the ship, but I for- 
got them at first, not knowing that there was tobacco in 
the island ; and afterwards, when I searched the ship again, 
j I could not come at any pipes at all. 

In my wicker ware, also I improved much, and made 
abundance of necessary baskets, as well as my invention 
showed me. Though not very handsome, yet they were 
such as were very handy and convenient for my laying 
I things up in, or fetching things home in. For example, if I 
killed a goat abroad, I could hang it up in a tree, flay it, 
and dress it, and cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a 


17 2 


The Life and Adventures of 


basket; and the like by a turtle, — I could cut it up, 
take out the eggs, and a piece or two of the flesh, which 
was enough for me, and bring them home in a basket, and 
leave the rest behind me. Also large deep baskets were my 
receivers for my corn, which I always rubbed out as soon 
as it was dry, and cured, and kept it in great baskets. 

I began now to perceive my powder abated consider- 
ably, and this was a want which it was impossible for me 
to supply, and I began seriously to consider what I must 
do when I should have no more powder ; that is to say, 
how I should do to kill any goat. I had, as is observed in 
the third year of my being here, kept a young kid, and 
bred her up tame, and I was in hopes of getting another, 
but I could not by any means bring it to pass, till my kid 
grew an old goat ; and I could never find in my heart to 
kill her, till she died at last of mere age. 

But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, 
and, as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I set 
myself to study some art to trap and snare the goats, to 
see whether I could not catch some of them alive. . . . 

To this purpose I made snares to hamper them; and I 
do believe they were more than once taken in them ; but 
my tackle was not good, for I had no wire, and I always 
found them broken, and my bait devoured. 

At length I resolved to try a pit-fall. So I dug several 
large pits in the earth, in places where I had observed the 
goats used to feed : and over these pits I placed hurdles 
of my own making too, with a great weight upon them. 


hi 

h: 

n 

11 


h 


1 


And several times I put ears of barley, and dry rice, with- j 


out setting the trap ; and I could easily perceive that the 
goats had gone in and eaten up the corn, for I could see ! 
the mark of their feet. At length I set three traps in one j 
night ; and going the next morning, I found them all 
standing, and yet the bait eaten and gone. This was very 


Robinson Crusoe 


*73 


discouraging. However, I altered my trap; and, not to 
trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see my 
trap, I found in one of them a large old he-goat ; and in 
one of the other, three kids — a male and two females. 

As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him ; he 
was so fierce I durst not go into the pit to him - — that is to 
say, to go about to bring him away alive, which was what 
I wanted. I could have killed him ; but that was not my 
business, nor would it answer my end. So I even let him 
out, and he ran away as if he had been frighted out of his 
wits. But I had forgot then what I learned afterwards — 
that hunger will tame a lion. If I had let him stay there 
three or four days without food, and then have carried 
I him some water to drink, and then a little corn, he would 
i have been as tame as one of the kids — for they are 
mighty sagacious, tractable creatures where they are well 
used. 

However, for the present I let him go, knowing no 
better at that time. Then I went to the three kids ; and 
taking them one by one, I tied them with strings together, 
and with some difficulty brought them all home. 

It was a good while before they would feed ; but throw- 
ing them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they 
began to be tame. And now I found that if I expected to 
supply myself with goatflesh when I had no powder or 
shot left, keeping some tame was my only way ; when, 
perhaps, I might have them about my house like a flock 
of sheep. 

But then it presently occurred to me that I must keep 
the tame from the wild, or else they would always run 
wild when they grew up. And the only way for this was 
to have some enclosed piece of ground, well fenced either 
with hedge or pale, to keep them in so effectually, that 
those within might not break out, or those without break in. 


174 


The Life and Adventures of 


This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands. 
Yet, as I saw there was an absolute necessity of doing it, 
my first piece of work was to find out a proper piece of 
ground — namely, where there was likely to be herbage 
for them to eat, water for them to drink, and cover to keep 
them from the sun. 

Those who understand such enclosures will think I had 
very little contrivance when I pitched upon a place very 
proper for all these, being a plain open piece of meadow- 
land or savanna (as our people call it in the western colo- 
nies), which had two or three little rills of fresh water in 
it, and at one end was very woody. I say they will smile 
at my forecast, when I shall tell them I began my enclos- 
ing of this piece of ground in such a manner that my 
hedge or pale must have been at least two mile about ! 
Nor was the madness of it so great as to the compass, for 
if it was ten mile about, I was like to have time enough to 
do it in. But I did not consider that my goats would be 
as wild in so much compass as if they had had the whole 
island, and I should have so much room to chase them in 
that I should never catch them. 

My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about 
fifty yards, when this thought occurred to me. So I 
presently stopped short, and for the first beginning I re- 
solved to enclose a piece of about one hundred and fifty 
yards in length, and one hundred yards in breadth ; which, 
as it would maintain as many as I should 'have in any 
reasonable time, so, as my flock increased, I could add 
more ground to my enclosure. 

This was acting with some prudence, and I went to 
work with courage. I was about three months hedging in 
the first piece ; and till I had done it, I tethered the three 
kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as 
near me as possible, to make them familiar ; and very often 


Robinson Crusoe 


l 7S 


I would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a hand- 
j ful of rice, and feed them out of my hand ; so that, after 
my enclosure was finished and I let them loose, they would 
follow me up and down, bleating after me for a handful of 
corn. 

This answered my end. And in about a year and half 
I had a flock of about twelve goats — kids and all ; and in 
two years more, I had three-and-forty — besides several 
j that I took and killed for my food. And after that I 
enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in, 
with little pens to drive them into, to take them as I 
wanted, and gates out of one piece of ground into another. 

But this was not all ; for now I not only had goat’s flesh 
; to feed on when I pleased, but milk too — a thing which, 
indeed, in my beginning, I did not so much as think of, 
and which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an 
agreeable surprise. For now I set up my dairy, and had 
sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. And as 
Nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature, 
dictates even naturally how to make use of it; so I that 
had never milked a cow, much less a goat, or seen butter 
or cheese made, very readily and handily, though after a 
great many essays and miscarriages, made me both butter 
and cheese at last, and never wanted it afterwards. 

How mercifully can our great Creator treat his creatures, 
even in those conditions in which they seem to be over- 
whelmed in destruction ! How can he sweeten the bitterest 
providences, and give us cause to praise him for dungeons 
and prisons! What a table was here spread for me in 
a wilderness, where I saw nothing at first but to perish 
for hunger ! 

It would have made a Stoic smile to have seen me and 
my little family sit down to dinner. There was my Maj- 
esty, the prince and lord of the whole island. I had the 


176 


The Life and Adventures of 


lives of all my subjects at my absolute command — I 
could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away ; and no 
rebels among all my subjects. 

Then to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone, 
attended by my servants. Poll, as if he had been my favor- 
ite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog 
— who was now grown very old and crazy — sat always at 
my right hand ; and two cats, one on one side the table and 
one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my 
hand, as a mark of special favor. 

******** 

I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have , 

the use of my boat — though very loath to run any more I 

hazards ; and therefore sometimes I sat contriving ways to 1 

get her about the island, and at other times I sat myself j 

down contented enough without her. But I had a strange 

uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the 

island where, as I have said, in rr T ast ramble, I went up 

the hill to see how the shore lay * -/TYT*— 1 r u r 4 " 

, J .. j. nad the whole 

that I might see what I had U 1 v' f , 

, & ; room to chase them in 

creased upon me every day, an 

travel thither by land, following . ^ w & 1 

did so. But had any one in England been to meet such 
a man as I was, it must either have frightened them, or 
raised a great deal of laughter. And as I frequently stood 
still to look at myself, I could not but smile at the notion 
of my travelling through Yorkshire ’ ; th such an equipage i 
and in such a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my 
figure as follows. 

I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat’s skin, 
with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun 
from me as to shoot the rain off from running into my 
neck — nothing being so hurtful in those climates as the 
rain upon the flesh under the clothes. 


Robinson Crusoe 


177 


I had a short jacket of goat-skin, the skirts coming down 
to about the middle of my thighs ; and a pair of open- 
kneed breeches of the same — the breeches were made of 
the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a 
length on either side, that like pantaloons it reached to 
the middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, 
but had made me a pair of somethings, I scarce know 
what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs and 
lace on either side like spatterdashes, but of a most bar- 
barous shape — as indeed were all the rest of my clothes. 

I had on a broad belt of goat-skin dried, which I drew 
together with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles, 
and in a kind of a frog on either side of this. Instead of 
a sword and a dagger hung a little saw and a hatchet, one 
on one side, one on the other. I had another belt not so 
broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over 
my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, 
hung two pouches w 1 made of goat’s skin too — in one 
*' dLUl " / ' ; i.er, in the other my shot. At my 
dictates even natural*;. t . on m y sho^der m y g Un • and 
had never milked a co imS y^ U g]y goat-skin umbrella — 
but X-ii, wa*j j the most necessary thing I had 

about me, next to my gun. As for my face, the color of 
it was really not so Mulatto-like as one might expect from 
a man not at all careful of it, and living within nineteen 
degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to 
grow till it was abou. a quarter of a yard long ; but as I 
had both scissors and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty 
short, except what grew on my upper lip, which I had 
trimmed into a large pair of Mohammedan whiskers, such 
as I had seen worn by some Turks whom I saw at Sallee ; 
for the Moors did not wear such, though the Turks did. 
Of these mustaches or whiskers I will not say they were 
long enough to hang my hat upon them ; but they were of 

N 


i 7 8 


The Life and Adventures of 


a length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in Eng- 
land would have passed for frightful. 

But all this is by-the-by. For as to my figure, I had so 
few to observe me, that it was of no manner of conse- 
quence ; so I say no more to that part. In this kind of 
figure I went my new journey, and was out five or six 
days. I travelled first along the sea-shore, directly to the 
place where I first brought my boat to an anchor to get 
up upon the rocks ; and having no boat now to take care 
of, I went over the land a nearer way to the same height 
that I was upon before; when looking forward to the 
point of the rocks which lay out, and which I was obliged 
to double with my boat, as is said above, I was surprised 
to see the sea all smooth and quiet — no rippling, no 
motion, no current any more there than in other places. 

I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved 
to spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothing i 
from the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was I 
presently convinced how it was — namely, that the tide . 
of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current 
of waters from some great river on the shore, must be I 
the occasion of this current; and that according as the I 
wind blew more forcibly from the west, or from the north, j 
this current came near, or went farther from the shore. 
For waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock 
again ; and then the tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw ! < 
the current again as before, only that it ran farther off, f 
being near half a league from the shore ; whereas in my ; 
case it set close upon the shore, and hurried me and my 1 
canoe along with it, which at another time it would not 
have done. 

This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do 
but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and 
I might very easily bring my boat about the island again. 


Robinson Crusoe 


!79 


But when I began to think of putting it in practice, I had 
such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the 
danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again 
with any patience. But on the contrary, I took up another 
resolution, which was more safe, though more laborious ; 
and this was, that I would build, or rather make me 
another periagua or canoe, and so have one for one side 
of the island, and one for the other. 

You are to understand that now* I had, as I may call it, 
two plantations in the island : one my little fortification 
or tent, with the wall about it under the rock, with the 
cave behind me, which by this time I had enlarged into 
several apartments, or caves, one within another. One 
of these, which was the driest and largest, and had a door 
out beyond my wall or fortification — that is to say beyond 
where my wall joined to the rock — was all filled up with 
the large earthen pots of which I have given an account, 
and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would 
hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores 
of provision, especially my corn, some in the ear cut off 
short from the straw, and the other rubbed out with my 
hand. 

As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or 
piles, those piles grew all like trees, and were by this 
time grown so big, and spread so very much, that there 
was not the least appearance to any one’s view of any 
habitation behind them. 

Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within 
the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of 
corn-ground, which I kept duly cultivated and sowed, and 
which duly yielded me their harvest in its season; and 
whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more land 
adjoining as fit as that. 

Besides this I had my country seat, and I had now a 


180 The Life and Adventures of 

tolerable plantation there also ; for first, I had my little 
bower, as I called it, which I kept in repair — that is to 
say, I kept the hedge which circled it in constantly fitted up 
to its usual height, the ladder always standing in the inside. 

I kept the trees, which at first were no more than my stakes, | 
but were now grown very firm and tall — I kept them 
always so cut that they might spread and grow thick and 
wild, and make the more agreeable shade, which they • 
did effectually to my mind. In the middle of this I had ; 
my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread 
over poles set up for that purpose, and which never wanted 
any repair or renewing; and under this I had made me 
a squab or couch, with the skins of the creatures I had 
killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on 
them ; such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had 
saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me ; and here, 
whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, 

I took up my country habitation. 

Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, 
that is to say, my goats ; and as I had taken an incon- , 
ceivable deal of pains to fence and enclose this ground, 
so I was so uneasy to see it kept entire, lest the goats 
should break through, that I never left off till with infinite 
labor I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small 
stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a 
pale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to put a 
hand through between them ; which, afterwards, when 
those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, 
made the enclosure strong like a wall; indeed, stronger ' 
than any wall. 

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I 
spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared neces- 
sary for my comfortable support ; for I considered the 
keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand 


Robinson Crusoe 


1 8 1 


would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and 
cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, if it were to 
be forty years ; and that keeping them in my reach de- 
pended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to such 
a degree that I might be sure of keeping them together ; 
which by this method, indeed, I so effectually secured, that 
when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them 
so very thick I was forced to pull some of them up again. 

In this place, also, I had my grapes growing, which I 
principally depended on for my winter store of raisins ; and 
which I never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best 
and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet ; and, indeed, 
they were not agreeable only, but physical, wholesome, 
nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree. 

As this was also about half way between my other habi- 
tation and the place where I had laid up my boat, I gen- 
erally stayed and lay here in my way thither ; for I used 
frequently to visit my boat, and I kept all things about or 
belonging to her in very good order. Sometimes I went 
out in her to divert myself ; but no more hazardous voyages 
would I go, nor scarce ever above a stone’s cast or two from 
the shore, I was so apprehensive of being hurried out of 
my knowledge again by the currents, or winds, or any 
other accident. But now I come to a new scene of my 
life. 



182 


The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 


XT. Crusoe sees the print of a man's foot 
on the shore — Fearing attacks from 
savages he further fortifies his dwelling 
— He finds the remains of a cannibal \ 
feast — His plans for punishing them , \ 
and his reasons for giving up the idea | 
of doing so. 

It happened one day about noon, going towards my boat, 1 
I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked 
foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the 
sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen I 
an apparition. I listened, I looked round me ; I could hear 
nothing, nor see anything. I went up to a rising ground 
to look farther. I went up the shore and down the shore ; j 
but it was all one, I could see no other impression but that 
one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and 
to observe if it might not be my fancy ; but there was no 
room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a 
foot, toes, heel, and every part of a foot ; — how it came 
thither I knew not, nor could in the least imagine. But 
after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly j 
confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortifica- 
tion, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but ter- 
rified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or 
three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying j 
every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible 
to describe how many various shapes affrighted imagina- 
tion represented things to me in; how many wild ideas 
were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange | 
unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way. 



THE PRINT OF A MAN’S NAKED FOOT. 


(After the picture by T. Stodhard, R.A.) 


8 4 


The Life and Adventures of 


When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever 
after this, I fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went 
over by the ladder as first contrived, or went in at the hole 
in the rock which I called a door, I cannot remember ; no, 
nor could I remember the next morning; for never frighted 
hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind 
than I to this retreat. 

I slept none that night. The further I was from the 
occasion of my fright the greater my apprehensions were, 
which is something contrary to the nature of such things, 
and especially to the usual practice of all creatures in fear. 
But I was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideas of the 
thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to 
myself, even though I was now a great way off it. Some- 
times I fancied it must be the devil ; and reason joined in 
with me upon this supposition. For how should any other 
thing in human shape come into the place ? Where was 
the vessel that brought them ? What marks were there of 
any other footsteps ? And how was it possible a man 
should come there ? But, then, to think that Satan should 
take human shape upon him in such a place, where there 
could be no manner of occasion for it but to leave the print 
of his foot behind him, and that even for no purpose, too, 
for he could not be sure I should see it ; this was an amuse- 
ment the other way. I considered that the devil might 
have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified 
me, than this of the single print of a foot ; — that, as I 
lived quite on the other side of the island, he would never 
have been so simple to leave a mark in a place where it 
was ten thousand to one whether I should ever see it or 
not ; and in the sand, too, which the first surge of the sea 
upon a high wind would have defaced entirely. All this 
seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all the 
notions we usually entertain of the subtilty of the devil. 


Robinson Crusoe 


i8 5 


Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me 
out of all apprehensions of its being the devil. And I 
presently concluded, then, that it must be some more dan- 
gerous creature — namely, that it must be some of the 
savages of the mainland over against me, who had wan- 
dered out to sea in their canoes, and either driven by the 
currents, or by contrary winds, had made the island ; and 
had been on shore, but were gone away again to sea, being 
as loath, perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate island as 
I would have been to have had them. 

While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, I 
was very thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as 
not to be thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see 
my boat, by which they would have concluded that some 
inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have 
searched farther for me. Then terrible thoughts racked 
my imagination about their having found my boat, and 
that there were people here ; and that if so, I should cer- 
tainly have them come again in greater numbers and de- 
vour me ; that if it should happen so that they should not 
find me, yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all my 
corn, carry away all my flock of tame goats, and I should 
perish at last for mere want. 

Thus my fear banished all my religious hope ; all that 
former confidence in God which was founded upon such 
wonderful experience as I had had of his goodness, now van- 
ished, as if he that had fed me by miracle hitherto could 
not preserve by his power the provision which he had made 
for me by his goodness. I reproached myself with my 
easiness, that would not sow any more corn one year than 
would just serve me till the next season, as if no accident 
could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was 
upon the ground ; and this I thought so just a reproof, 
that I resolved for the future to have two or three years’ 


1 86 


The Life and Adventures of 


corn beforehand, so that whatever might come, I might 
not perish for want of bread. 

How strange a checker-work of providence is the life of 
man ! and by what secret differing springs are the affec- 
tions hurried about, as differing circumstances present ! 
To-day we love what to-morrow we hate ; to-day we seek 
what to-morrow we shun ; to-day we desire what to-morrow 
we fear — nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. 
This was exemplified in me at this time in the most lively 
manner imaginable : for I, whose only affliction was that 
I seemed banished from human society, that I was alone, 
circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from man- 
kind, and condemned to what I called silent life — that I 
was as one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be num- 
bered among the living, or to appear among the rest of his 
creatures ; that to have seen one of my own species would 
have seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the 
greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme 
blessing of salvation, could bestow ; — I say, that I should 
now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing a man, 
and was ready to sink into the ground at but the shadow 
or silent appearance of a man’s having. set his foot in the 
island. 

Such is the uneven state of human life. And it afforded 
me a great many curious speculations afterwards, when I 
had a little recovered my first surprise. I considered that 
this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good 
providence of God had determined for me ; that as I could 
not foresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be in 
all this, so I was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I 
was his creature, had an undoubted right by creation to 
govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit ; and 
who, as I was a creature who had offended him, had like- 
wise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment 


Robinson Crusoe 187 

he thought fit ; and that it was my part to submit to bear 
his indignation, because I had sinned against him. 

I then reflected that God, who was not only righteous 
but omnipotent, as he had thought fit thus to punish and 
afflict me, so he was able to deliver me ; that if he did not 
think fit to do it, it was my unquestioned duty to resign 
myself absolutely and entirely to his will; and, on the 
other hand, it was my duty also to hope in him, pray to 
him, and quietly to attend the dictates and directions of his 
daily providence. 

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I 
may say, weeks and months ; and one particular effect of 
my cogitations on this occasion I cannot omit — namely, 
one morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with thought 
about my danger from the appearance of savages, I found 
it discomposed me very much ; upon which these words of 
the Scripture came into my thoughts, “ Call upon me in 
the day of trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt 
glorify me.” 

Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was 
not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to 
pray earnestly to God for deliverance. When I had done 
praying I took up my Bible, and opening it to read, the 
first words that presented to me were, “ Wait on the Lord 
and be of good cheer, and. he shall strengthen thy heart; 
wait, I say, on the Lord.” It is impossible to express the 
comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down 
the book, and was no more sad — at least, not on that 
occasion. 

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and 
reflections, it came into my thought one day that all this 
might be a mere chimera of my own ; and that this foot 
might be the print of my own foot when I came on shore 
from my boat. This cheered me up a little, too, and I began 


1 88 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was noth- 
ing else but my own foot ; and why might not I come that 
way from the boat as well as I was going that way to the 
boat ? Again, I considered also that I could by no means 
tell for certain where I had trod and where I had not; 
and that if at last this was the only print of my own foot, 

I had played the part of those fools who strive to make 
stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are frighted 
at them more than anybody. 

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again; j 
for I had not stirred out of my castle for three days and 
nights, so that I began to starve for provision ; for I had ;i 
little or nothing within doors but some barley cakes and 
water. Then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked, [ 
too, which usually was my evening diversion ; and the :: 
poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for 
want of it : and, indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, ji 
and almost dried up their milk. 

Heartening myself therefore with the belief that this was ij 
nothing but the print of one of my own feet, and so I 
might be truly said to start at my own shadow, I began to 
go abroad again, and went to my country house to milk 
my flock; but to see with what fear I went forward, how j 
often I looked behind me, how I was ready every now and 
then to lay down my basket and run for my life, it would 
have made any one have thought I was haunted with an 
evil conscience, or that I had lately been most terribly . 
frighted, and so indeed I had. 

However, as I went down thus two or three days, and j 
having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and to j! 
think there was really nothing in it but my own imagina- j 1 
tion. But I could not persuade myself fully of this till I 
should go down to the shore again and see this print of 
a foot, and measure it by my own, and see if there was 





~f~ C_&n\e, tT C $y£' 

zy 


mv OVfr\ r^dir * ; 


190 The Life and Adventures of 

any similitude or fitness, that I might be assured it was my h 
own foot. But when I came to the place, First , It appeared 
evidently to me that when I laid up my boat I could not pos- ! tl 
sibly be on shore anywhere there about. Secondly , When \ 
I came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my a 
foot not so large by a great deal. Both these things filled 
my head with new imaginations, and gave me the vapors If 
again to the highest degree ; so that I shook with cold like , p 
one in an ague. And I went home again, filled with the 
belief that some man or men had been on shore there ; or, I n 
in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might be t! 
surprised before I was aware — and what course to take $ 
for my security I knew not. t) 

Oh, what ridiculous resolution men take when possessed l 
with fear ! It deprives them of the use of those means 
which reason offers for their relief. The first thing I pro- i: 
posed to myself was to throw down my enclosures, and turn ! t 
all my tame cattle wild into the woods, that the enemy 1 
might not find them, and then frequent the island in pros- f 
pect of the same or the like booty ; then to the simple t 
thing of digging up my two corn-fields, that they might not 
find such a grain there, and still be prompted to frequent r 
the island ; then to demolish my bower and tent, that they 
might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted 
to look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting, j 
These were the subject of the first night’s cogitation, after 
I was come home again, while the apprehensions which had 1 t 
so overrun my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was t 
full of vapors, as above. Thus fear of danger is ten 
thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when 
apparent to the eyes ; and we find the burden of anxiety 
greater by much than the evil which we are anxious about ; 
and, which was worse than all this, I had not that relief in 
this trouble from the resignation I used to practise that I 


Robinson Crusoe 


191 

hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who com- 
plained not only that the Philistines were upon him, but 
that God had forsaken him ; for I did not now take due 
ways to compose my mind, by crying to God in my distress, 
and resting upon his providence, as I had done before, for 
my defence and deliverance ; which if I had done, I had at 
least been more cheerfully supported under this new sur- 
prise, and perhaps carried through it with more resolution. 

This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all 
night; but in the morning I fell asleep, and having by 
the amusement of my mind been as it were tired, and my 
spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and waked much 
better composed than I had ever been before ; and now I 
began to think sedately. And upon the utmost debate with 
myself, I concluded, That this island, which was so exceed- 
ing pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the mainland 
than as I had seen, was not so entirely abandoned as I 
might imagine. That although there were no stated in- 
habitants who lived on the spot, yet that there might some- 
times come boats off from the shore, who either with design, 
or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross winds, 
might come to this place. 

That I had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met 
with the least shadow or figure of any people yet ; and that 
if at any time they should be driven here, it was probable 
they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing 
they had never thought fit to fix there upon any occasion, 
to this time. 

That the most I could suggest any danger from was, 
from any such casual accidental landing of straggling peo- 
ple from the main, who, as it was likely, if they were driven 
hither, were here against their wills ; so they made no stay 
here, but went off again with all possible speed, seldom 
staying one night on shore, lest they should not have 


192 The Life and Adventures of 

the help of the tides and daylight back again ; and that, 
therefore, I had nothing to do but to consider of some safe 
retreat, in case I should see any savages land upon the 
spot 

Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave 
so large as to bring a door through again ; which door, as 
I said, came out beyond where my fortification joined to 
the rock. Upon maturely considering this, therefore, I 
resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the same 
manner of a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just 
where I had planted a double row of trees about twelve 
years before, of which I made mention. These trees hav- 
ing been planted so thick before, they wanted but a few 
piles to be driven between them that they should be thicker 
and stronger, and my wall would be soon finished. 

So that I had now a double wall, and my outer wall was 
thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and everything 
I could think of to make it strong ; having in it seven little 
holes about as big as I might put my arm out at. In the 
inside of this I thickened my wall to about ten foot thick, 
with continual bringing earth out of my cave and laying it 
at the foot of the wall and walking upon it ; and through 
the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of which 
I took notice that I got seven on shore out of the ship ; 
these, I say, I planted like my cannon, and fitted them 
into frames that held them like a carriage, that so I could 
fire all the seven guns in two minutes’ time. This wall I 
was many a weary month in finishing, and yet never 
thought myself safe till it was done. 

When this was done I stuck all the ground without my 
wall, for a great way every way, as full with stakes or 
sticks of the osierlike wood, which I found so apt to grow, 
as they could well stand ; insomuch that I believe I might 
set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large 


Robinson Crusoe 


l 93 


space between them and my wall, that I might have room 
to see an enemy, and they might have no shelter from the 
young trees, if they attempted to approach my outer 
wall. 

Thus in two years’ time I had a thick grove, and in five 
or six years’ time I had a wood before my dwelling, grow- 
ing so monstrous thick and strong, that it was indeed per- 
fectly impassable ; and no men, of what kind soever, would 
ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much less 
a habitation. As for the way which I proposed to myself 
to go in and out (for I left no avenue), it was by setting 
two ladders : one to a part of the rock which was low, and 
then broke in, and left room to place another ladder upon 
that. So, when the two ladders were taken down, no man 
living could come down to me without mischieving him- 
self ; and if they had come down, they were still on the 
outside of my outer wall. 

Thus I took all the measures human prudence could 
suggest for my own preservation ; and it will be seen at 
length that they were not altogether without just reason, 
though I foresaw nothing at that time more than my mere 
fear suggested to me. 

While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of 
my other affairs ; for I had a great concern upon me for 
my little herd of goats. They were not only a present 
supply to me upon every occasion, and began to be suffi- 
cient to me, without the expense of powder and shot, but 
also without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones ; 
and I was loath to lose the advantage of them, and to 
have them all to nurse up over again. 

To this purpose, after long consideration, I could think 
of but two ways to preserve them : one was, to find another 
convenient place to dig a cave underground, and to drive 
them into it every night; and the other was, to enclose 


i 9 4 


The Life and Adventures of 


two or three little bits of land, remote from one another, 
and as much concealed as I could, where I might keep 
about half-a-dozen young goats in each place; so that, if! oh 
any disaster happened to the flock in general, I might be P 
able to raise them again with little trouble and time. And:? 
this, though it would require a great deal of time and labor,! ft* 
I thought was the most rational design. 

Accordingly I spent some time to find out the most a;- 
retired parts of the island ; and I pitched upon one which ca! 
was as private indeed as my heart could wish for. It was h 
a little damp piece of ground in the middle of the hollow j in 
and thick woods where, as is observed, I almost lost myself e 
once before, endeavoring to come back that way from the ins 
eastern part of the island. Here I found a clear piece of p 
land — near three acres — so surrounded with woods that 
it was almost an enclosure by nature ; at least, it did not I 
want near so much labor to make it so as the other pieces pe 
of ground I had worked so hard at. 

I immediately went to work with this piece of ground ; on 
and in less than a month’s time I had so fenced it round tin 
that my flock or herd — call it what you please — who were ; mi 
not so wild now as at first they might be supposed to be, k 
were well enough secured in it. So, without any further j an 
delay, I removed ten young she-goats and two he-goats to 
this piece ; and when they were there I continued to per- 1 
feet the fence till I had made it as secure as the other ; fo 
which, however, I did at more leisure, and it took me up t! 
more time by a great deal. I 

All this labor I was at the expense of purely from my sa 
apprehensions on the account of the print of a man’s foot a 
which I had seen; for as yet I never saw any human * 
creature come near the island, and I had now lived two a 
years under these uneasinesses, which indeed made my o 
life much less comfortable than it was before — as may 


Robinson Crusoe 


*95 


, well be imagined by any who know what it is to live in 
i the constant snare of the fear of man. And this I must 
[ observe with grief, too, that the discomposure of my 
i mind had too great impressions also upon the religious 
1 part of my thoughts ; for the dread and terror of falling 
, into the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my 
spirits that I seldom found myself in a due temper for 
t application to my Maker — at least, not with the sedate 
i calmness and resignation of soul which I was wont to do. 
5 I rather prayed to God as under great affliction and pres- 
f sure of mind, surrounded with danger, and in expectation 
every night of being murdered and devoured before morn- 
: ing. And I must testify from my experience that a tem- 
per of peace, thankfulness, love, and affection, is much 
more the proper frame for prayer than that of terror and 

I discomposure ; and that, under the dread of mischief im- 
pending, a man is no more fit for a comforting performance 
of the duty of praying to God than he is for repentance 
, on a sick-bed ; for these discomposures affect the mind as 
i the others do the body ; and the discomposure of the mind 
must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the 
body — and much greater, praying to God being properly 
an act of the mind, not of the body. 

But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my 
little living stock, I went about the whole island searching 
for another private place to make such another deposit, 

: when, wandering more to the west point of the island than 
I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, I thought I 
saw a boat upon the sea at a great distance. I had found 
a prospective-glass or two in one of the seamen’s chests 
which I saved out of our ship ; but I had it not about me, 
and this was so remote that I could not tell what to make 
of it, though I looked at it till my eyes were not able to 
Ihold to look any longer. Whether it was a boat or not I 


196 The Life and Adventures of 

do not know ; but as I descended from the hill I could 
see no more of it ; so I gave it over — only I resolved 
to go no more out without a prospective-glass in my 
pocket. 

When I was come down the hill to the end of the 
island — where, indeed, I had never been before — I was 
presently convinced that the seeing the print of a man’s 
foot was not such a strange thing in the island as I imag- 
ined. And but that it was a special providence that I was 
cast upon the side of the island where the savages never 
came, I should easily have known that nothing was more 
frequent than for the canoes from the main, when they 
happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to 
that side of the island for harbor ; likewise, as they often 
met and fought in their canoes, the victors having taken 
any prisoners would bring them over to the shore, where, 
according to their dreadful customs, being all cannibals, 
they would kill and eat them : of which hereafter. 

When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said 
above, being the southwest point of the island, I was per- 
fectly confounded and amazed — nor is it possible for me 
to express the horror of my mind — at seeing the shore 
spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human 
bodies ; and particularly I observed a place where there 
had been a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth like a 
cockpit, where it is supposed the savage wretches had sat 
down to their inhuman f eastings upon the bodies of their 
fellow-creatures. 

I was so astonished with the sight of these things that 
I entertained no notions of any danger to myself from it 
for a long while. All my apprehensions were buried in 
the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman, hellish brutality, 
and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature ; which 
though I had heard of often, yet I never had so near a 


Robinson Crusoe 


*97 


1 view of before. In short, I turned away my face from the 
i ! horrid spectacle : my stomach grew sick, I was just at the 
f ; point of fainting, ........ 

and could not bear to stay in the place a moment. So I 
gat me up the hill again with all the speed I could, and 
walked on towards my own habitation. 

When I came a little out of that part of the island, I 
stood still awhile as amazed ; and then recovering myself, 
I looked up with the utmost affection of my soul, and, 
with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave God thanks that had 
cast my first lot in a part of the world where I was dis- 
tinguished from such dreadful creatures as these ; and 
i that though I had esteemed my present condition very 
i miserable, had yet given me so many comforts in it that I 
i had still more to give thanks for than to complain of ; and 
this above all, that I had, even in this miserable condition, 
been comforted with the knowledge of himself and the 
hope of his blessing — which was a felicity more than suf- 
ficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered 
or could suffer. 

In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, 
and began to be much easier now as to the safety of my 
circumstances than ever I was before ; for I observed that 
these wretches never came to this island in search of what 
they could get — perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not 
expecting anything here, and having often, no doubt, been 
up in the covered woody part of it without finding any- 
thing to their purpose. I knew I had been here now al- 
most eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of 
human creature there before ; and I might be here eighteen 
more, as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not 
discover myself to them — which I had no manner of 
occasion to do, it being my only business to keep my- 
self entirely concealed where I was, unless I foupd a 


198 The Life and Adventures of 

better sort of creatures than cannibals to make myself 
known to. 

Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage 
wretches that I have been speaking of, and of the wretched 
inhuman custom of their devouring and eating one another 
up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept close 
within my own circle for almost two years after this. 
When I say my own circle, I mean by it my three planta- 
tions — namely, my castle, my country seat, which I called 
my bower, and my enclosure in the woods. Nor did I 
look after this for any other use than as an enclosure for 
my goats ; for the aversion which nature gave me to these 
hellish wretches was such that I was fearful of seeing 
them as of seeing the devil himself. Nor did I so much 
as go to look after my boat in all this time, but began 
rather to think of making me another ; for I could not 
think of ever making any more attempts to bring the 
other boat round the island to me, lest I should meet with 
some of these creatures at sea, in which, if I had happened 
to have fallen into their hands, I knew what would have 
been my lot. 

Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in 
no danger of being discovered by these people, began to 
wear off my uneasiness about them ; and I began to live 
just in the same composed manner as before — only with 
this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my 
eyes more about me than I did before, lest I should hap- 
pen to be seen by any of them ; and, particularly, I was 
more cautious of firing my gun, lest any of them being on 
the island should happen to hear of it. And it was there- 
fore a very good providence to me that I had furnished 
myself with a tame breed of goats, that I needed not hunt 1 
any more about the woods or shoot at them ; and if I did 
catch any of them after this, it was by traps and snares, 


Robinson Crusoe 


199 


as I had done before : so that for two years after this I 
believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never went 
out without it. And, which was more, as I had saved 
| three pistols out of the ship, I always carried them out 
with me — or at least two of them — sticking them in my 
goat-skin belt ; also I furbished up one of the great cut- 
lasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to 
| put it on also : so that I was now a most formidable fellow 
I to look at when I went abroad, if you add to the former 
description of myself the particular of two pistols, and a 
. i great broadsword hanging at my side in a belt, but with- 
out a scabbard. 

Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I 
seemed, excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my 
former calm, sedate way of living. All these things tended 
to showing me more and more how far my condition was 
from being miserable, compared to some others ; nay, to 
many other particulars of life which it might have pleased 
God to have made my lot. It put me upon reflecting how 
' little repining there would be among mankind at any con- 
dition of life, if people would rather compare their condi- 
tion with those that are worse, in order to be thankful, 

; than be always comparing them with those which are 
better, to assist their murmurings and complainings. 

As in my present condition there were not really many 
things which I wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights 
I had been in about these savage wretches, and the con- 
cern I had been in for my own preservation, had taken off 
the edge of my invention for my own conveniences ; and 
I had dropped a good design which I had once bent my 
thoughts too much upon, and that was to try if I could not 
make some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew 
myself some beer. This was really a whimsical thought, 
and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it ; for I 


200 The Life and Adventures of 

presently saw there would be the want of several things 
necessary to the making my beer that it would be impossi- 
ble for me to supply. As, first, casks to preserve it in ; 
which was a thing that, as I have observed already, I 
could never compass — no, though I spent, not many days, , 
but weeks, nay months, in attempting it, but to no pur- 
pose. In the next place, I had no hops to make it keep, 
no yeast to make it work, no copper or kettle to make it 
boil. And yet all these things notwithstanding, I verily 
believe had not these things intervened — I mean the 
frights and terrors I was in about the savages — I had 
undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass too ; for I 
seldom gave anything over without accomplishing it, when 
I once had it in my head enough to begin it. 

But my invention now run quite another way ; for night 
and day I could think of nothing but how I might destroy 
some of these monsters in their cruel, bloody entertainment, 
and, if possible, save the victim they should bring hither 
to destroy. It would take up a larger volume than this 
whole work is intended to be, to set down all the contriv- 
ances I hatched, or rather brooded upon in my thought, 
for the destroying these creatures, or at least frighting 
them, so as to prevent their coming hither any more. But 
all was abortive : nothing could be possible to take effect 
unless I was to be there to do it myself. And what could 
one man do among them when perhaps there might be 
twenty or thirty of them together, with their darts or their 
bows and arrows, with which they could shoot as true to 
a mark as I could with my gun ? 

Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the place 
where they made their fire, and put in five or six pound of 
gunpowder, which when they kindled their fire would con- 
sequently take fire, and blow up all that was near it. But 
as, in the first place, I should be very loath to waste so 


Robinson Crusoe 


201 


much powder upon them, my store being now within the 
quantity of one barrel, so neither could I be sure of its go- 
ing off at any certain time, when it might surprise them, and 
at best that it would do little more than just blow the fire 
about their ears and fright them, but not sufficient to make 
them forsake the place : so I laid it aside, and then pro- 
posed that I would place myself in ambush, in some con- 
venient place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and 
in the middle of their bloody ceremony, let fly at them, 
when I should be sure to kill or wound perhaps two or 
three at every shot; and then falling in upon them with 
my three pistols and my sword, I made no doubt but that 
if there was twenty I should kill them all. This fancy 
pleased my thoughts for some weeks, and I was so full of 
it that I often dreamed of it, and sometimes that I was just 
going to let fly at them in my sleep. 

I went so far with it in my imagination, that I employed 
myself several days to find out proper places to put myself 
in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them ; and I went 
frequently to the place itself, which was now grown more 
familiar to me : and especially while my mind was thus 
filled with thoughts of revenge, and of a bloody putting 
twenty or thirty of them to the sword, as I may call it ; 
the horror I had at the place, and at the signals of the 
barbarous wretches devouring one another, abated my 
malice. 

Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill, 
where I was satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any 
of their boats coming, and might then, even before they 
would be ready to come on shore, convey myself unseen 
into thickets of trees, in one of which there was a hollow 
large enough to conceal me entirely, and where I might 
sit and observe all their bloody doings, and take my full 
aim at their heads, when they were so close together as 


202 


The Life and Adventures of 


that it would be next to impossible that I should miss my 
shoot, or that I could fail wounding three or four of them 
at the first shoot. 

In this place, then, I resolved to fix my design, and ac- 
cordingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowl- 
ing-piece. The two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs 
each, and four or five smaller bullets, about the size of pis- 
tol bullets ; and the fowling-piece I loaded with near a 
handful of swan-shot, of the largest size ; I also loaded my 
pistols with about four bullets each, and in this posture, 
well provided with ammunition for a second and third 
charge, I prepared myself for my expedition. 

After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in 
my imagination put it in practice, I continually made my 
tour every morning up to the top of the hill, which was 
from my castle, as I called it, about three miles, or more, 
to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea, coming 
near the island, or standing over towards it. But I began 
to tire of this hard duty, after I had for two or three months 
constantly kept my watch, but come always back without 
any discovery, there having not in all that time been the 
least appearance, not only on or near the shore, but not on 
the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses could reach 
every way. 

As long as I kept up my daily tour to the hill to look out, 
so long also I kept up the vigor of my design, and my 
spirits seemed to be all the while in a suitable form for so 
outrageous an execution as the killing twenty or thirty naked 
savages, for an offence which I had not at all entered into 
a discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than my pas- 
sions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the 
unnatural custom of that people of the country, who it 
seems had been suffered by Providence, in his wise disposi- 
tion of the world, to have no other guide than that of their 


Robinson Crusoe 


20 3 


own abominable and vitiated passions ; and consequently 
were left, and perhaps had been so for some ages, to act 
such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as 
nothing but nature entirely abandoned of Heaven and acted 
I by some hellish degeneracy, could have run them into. But 
now, when, as I have said, I began to be weary of the fruit- 
less excursion which I had made so long, and so far, every 
morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself began 
to alter, and I began with cooler and calmer thoughts to 
consider what it was I was going to engage in; — what 
authority or call I had to pretend to be judge and execu- 
tioner upon these men as criminals, whom Heaven had 
thought fit for so many ages to suffer unpunished, to go on, 
and to be, as it were, the executioners of his judgments 
i one upon another. How far these people were offenders 
I against me, and what right I had to engage in the quarrel 
of that blood, which they shed promiscuously one upon 
another. I debated this very often with myself thus : How 
do I know what God himself judges in this particular case ? 
It is certain these people do not commit this as a crime ; it 
is not against their own consciences reproving or their light 
reproaching them. They do not know it to be an offence, 
and then commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we 
do in almost all the sins we commit. They think it no 
more a crime to kill a captive taken in war, than we do 
to kill an ox ; nor to eat human flesh, than we do to eat 
mutton. 

When I had considered this a little, it followed necessarily 
that I was certainly in the wrong in it ; that these people 
were not murderers in the sense that I had before con- 
demned them in my thoughts ; any more than those Chris- 
tians were murderers who often put to death the prisoners 
taken in battle ; or, more frequently, upon many occasions 
put whole troops of men to the sword, without giving 


204 The Life and Adventures of 

quarter, though they threw down their arms and sub- 
mitted. 

In the next place, it occurred to me that albeit the usage 
they thus gave one another was thus brutish and inhuman, 
yet it was really nothing to me ; these people had done me 
no injury. That if they attempted me, or I saw it neces- 
sary for my immediate preservation to fall upon them, some- 
thing might be said for it ; but that as I was yet out of their 
power, and they had really no knowledge of me, and con- 
sequently no design upon me ; and therefore it could not 
be just for me to fall upon them. That this would justify 
the conduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practised 
in America, and where they destroyed millions of these peo- 
ple, who, however they were idolaters, and barbarians, and 
had several bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, 
such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols, were yet, 
as to the Spaniards, very innocent people ; and that the 
rooting them out of the country is spoken of with the 
utmost abhorrence and detestation, by even the Spaniards 
themselves, at this time, and by all other Christian nations 
of Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural 
piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man ; and 
such as for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned 
to be frightful and terrible to all people of humanity, or of 
Christian compassion — as if the kingdom of Spain were 
particularly eminent for the product of a race of men who 
were without principles of tenderness, or the common 
bowels of pity to the miserable, which is reckoned to be a 
mark of generous temper in the mind. 

These considerations really put me to a pause, and to 
a kind of a full stop ; and I began by little and little to be 
off of my design, and to conclude I had taken wrong meas- 
ures in my resolutions to attack the savages ; that it was 
not my business to meddle with them, unless they first 


Robinson Crusoe 


205 


attack me, and this it was my business if possible to pre- 
vent ; but that, if I were discovered and attacked, then I 
knew my duty. 

On the other hand, I argued with myself, that this really 
was the way not to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and 
destroy myself; for unless I was sure to kill every one 
that not only should be on shore at that time, but that 
should ever come on shore afterwards, if but one of them 
escaped to tell their country-people what had happened, 
they would come over again by thousands to revenge the 
death of their fellows, and I should only bring upon my- 
self a certain destruction, which at present I had no man- 
ner of occasion for. 

Upon the whole, I concluded, that neither in principle 
nor in policy I ought one way or other to concern myself 
in this affair; — that my business was by all possible 
means to conceal myself from them, and not to leave the 
least signal to them to guess by that there were any living 
creatures upon the island, — I mean of human shape. 

Religion joined in with this prudential course, and I was 
convinced now many ways that I was perfectly out of my 
duty, when I was laying all my bloody schemes for the 
destruction of innocent creatures, — I mean innocent as 
to me. As to the crimes they were guilty of towards one 
another, I had nothing to do with them ; they were national, 
and I ought to leave them to the justice of God, who is the 
Governor of nations, and knows how by national punish- 
ments to make a just retribution for national offences, and 
to bring public judgments upon those who offend in a 
public manner, by such ways as best pleases him. 

This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a 
greater satisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered 
to do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe 
would have been no less a sin than that of wilful murder, 


20 6 The Life and Adventures of 

if I had committed it. And I give most humble thanks 
on my knees to God, that had thus delivered me from 
blood-guiltiness; beseeching him to grant me the protec- 
tion of his providence, that I might not fall into the hands 
of the barbarians ; or that 1 might not lay my hands upon 
them, unless I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, 
in defence of my own life. 



Robinson Crusoe 


207 


XII. Crusoe's precautions against a visit of 
the savages — He lives a retired life , 
managing his flock — Discovers a dying 
goat in a wonderful cave — A party of 
cannibals visits his island , and Crusoe 
plots to murder them — A shipwreck , 
and a dead body washed ashore — 
Crusoe saves something from the wreck 
— The only living thing a dog — Cru- 
soe bemoans his fate and reflects on his 
condition. 

In this disposition I continued for near a year after this, 
and so far was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon 
these wretches, that in all that time I never once went up 
the hill to see whether there were any of them in sight, 
or to know whether any of them had been on shore there 
or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my 
contrivances against them, or be provoked by any advan- 
tage which might present itself, to fall upon them ; only 
this I did, I went and removed my boat, which I had on 
the other side the island, and carried it down to the east 
end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove 
which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, 
by reason of the currents, the savages durst not, at least 
would not, come with their boats upon any account what- 
soever. 

With my boat I carried away everything that I had left 
there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare 
going thither — namely, a mast and sail which I had made 


208 


The Life and Adventures of 


for her, and a thing like an anchor, but indeed which 
could not be called either anchor or grappling — however, 
it was the best I could make of its kind. All these I 
removed, that there might not be the least shadow of any 
discovery, or any appearance of any boat or of any human 
habitation upon the island. 

Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than 
ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than upon my 
constant employment ; namely, to milk my she-goats and 
manage my little flock in the wood ; which, as it was quite 
on the other part of the island, was quite out of danger ; 
for certain it is, that these savage people who sometimes 
haunted this island, never came with any thoughts of find- 
ing anything here, and consequently never wandered off 
from the coast. And I doubt not but they might have 
been several times on shore after my apprehensions of 
them had made me cautious as well as before ; and, in- 
deed, I looked back with some horror upon the thoughts 
of what my condition would have been, if I had chopped 
upon them, and been discovered before that, when naked 
and unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded often 
only with small shot. I walked everywhere peeping and 
peeping about the island to see what I could get ; — what 
a surprise should I have been in, if, when I discovered the 
print of a man’s foot, I had instead of that seen fifteen or 
twenty savages, and found them pursuing me, and, by the 
swiftness of their running, no possibility of my escaping 
them ! 

The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul 
within me, and distressed my mind so much that I could 
not soon recover it, to think what I should have done, and 
how I not only should not have been able to resist them, 
but even should not have had presence of mind enough to 
do what I might have done ; much less what now, after so 


Robinson Crusoe 


209 


much consideration and preparation, I might be able to do. 
Indeed, after serious thinking of these things, I should be 
very melancholy, and sometimes it would last a great while; 
but I resolved it at last all into thankfulness to that Provi- 
dence which had delivered me from so many unseen dan- 
gers, and had kept me from those mischiefs which I could 
no way have been the agent in delivering myself from, 
because I had not the least notion of any such thing 
depending, or the least supposition of it being possible. 

This renewed a contemplation which often had come to 
my thoughts in former time, when first I began to see the 
merciful dispositions of Heaven in the dangers we run 
through in this life ; how wonderfully we are delivered 
when we know nothing of it : how, when we are in a 
quandary, as we call it, a doubt or hesitation whether to 
go this way or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this 
way when we intended to go that way ; nay, when sense, 
our own inclination, and perhaps business, has called to 
go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, 
from we know not what springs, and by we know not what 
power, shall overrule us to go this way ; and it shall after- 
wards appear that had we gone that way which we should 
have gone, and even to our imagination ought to have 
gone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon these 
and many like reflections, I afterwards made it a certain 
rule with me, that whenever I found those secret hints or 
pressings of my mind to doing or not doing anything that 
presented, or to going this way or that way, I never failed 
to obey the secret dictate, though I knew no other reason 
for it than that such a pressure or such a hint hung upon 
my mind. I could give many examples of the success of 
this conduct in the course of my life, but more especially 
in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island, 
besides many occasions which it is very likely I might 


210 


The Life and Adventures of 


have taken notice of if I had seen with the same eyes then 
that I saw with now. But it is never too late to be wise ; 
and I cannot but advise all considering men, whose lives 
are attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine, or 
even though not so extraordinary, not to slight such secret 
intimations of Providence. Let them come from what 
invisible intelligence they will — that I shall not discuss, 
and perhaps cannot account for — but certainly they are 
a proof of the converse of spirits, and the secret communi- 
cation between those embodied and those unembodied, and 
such a proof as can never be withstood. Of which I shall 
have occasion to give some very remarkable instances in 
the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal 
place. 

I believe the reader of this will not think strange if I 
confess that these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived 
in, and the concern that was now upon me, put an end to 
all invention and to all the contrivances that I had laid for 
my future accommodations and conveniences. I had the 
care of my safety more now upon my hands than that of 
my food. I cared not to drive a nail or chop a stick of 
wood now, for fear the noise I should make should be 
heard ; much less would I fire a gun, for the same reason. 
And, above all, I was intolerably uneasy at making any 
fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great distance in 
the day, should betray me ; and for this reason I removed 
that part of my business which required fire, such as burn- 
ing of pots and pipes, etc., into my new apartment in the 
woods, where, after I had been some time, I found to my 
unspeakable consolation a mere natural cave in the earth, 
which went in a vast way, and where, I dare say, no sav- 
age, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as 
to venture in, nor indeed would any man else ; but one 
who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat. 


Robinson Crusoe 


21 I 


The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great 
rock, where, by mere accident (I would say, if I did not 
see abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to Provi- 
dence), I was cutting down some thick branches of trees 
to make charcoal. And before I go on I must observe 
the reason of my making this charcoal, which was thus : — 

I was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as 
I said before ; and yet I could not live there without bak- 
ing my bread, cooking my meat, etc. So I contrived to 
burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, 
under turf, till it became chark, or dry coal; and then 
putting the fire out, I preserved the coal to carry home 
and perform the other services which fire was wanting for 
at home without danger of smoke. 

But this by-the-by. While I was cutting down some 
wood here, I perceived that behind a very thick branch of 
low brushwood or underwood there was a kind of hollow 
place. I was curious to look into it, and getting with 
difficulty into the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large ; 
that is to say, sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and 
perhaps another with me. But I must confess to you I 
made more haste out than I did in, when looking further 
into the place, and which was perfectly dark, I saw two 
broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or man 
I knew not, which twinkled like two stars, the dim light 
from the cave’s mouth shining directly in and making the 
reflection. 

However, after some pause, I recovered myself, and 
began to call myself a thousand fools, and tell myself that 
he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live 
twenty years in an island all alone ; and that I durst to 
believe there was nothing in this cave that was more 
frightful than myself. Upon this, plucking up my cour- 
age, I took up a great firebrand and in I rushed again, 


212 The Life and Adventures of 

with the stick flaming in my hand. I had not gone three 
steps in but I was almost as much frighted as I was be- 
fore ; for I heard a very loud sigh, like that of a man in 
some pain ; and it was followed by a broken noise, as if 
of words half expressed, and then a deep sigh again. I 
stepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise 
that it put me into a cold sweat ; and if I had had a hat 
on my head, I will not answer for it that my hair might 
not have lifted it off ! But still, plucking up my spirits as 
well as I could, and encouraging myself a little with con- 
sidering that the power and presence of God was every- 
where, and was able to protect me, upon this I stepped 
forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding 
it up a little over my head, I saw lying on the ground a 
most monstrous frightful old he-goat, just making his will, 
as we say, and gasping for life, and dying indeed of mere 
old age. 

I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and 
he essayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself. . 
And I thought with myself he might even lie there ; for 
if he had frighted me so, he would certainly fright any of 
the savages, if any of them should be so hardy as to come 
in there while he had any life in him. 

I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to 
look around me, when I found the cave was but very 
small ; that is to say, it might be about twelve foot over, 
but in no manner of shape, either round or square, no 
hands having ever been employed in making it but those 
of mere Nature. I observed also that there was a place 
at the farther side of it that went in farther, but was so 
low that it required me to creep upon my hands and knees 
to go into it, and whither I went I knew not. So, having 
no candle, I gave it over for some time, but resolved to 
come again the next day, provided with candles and a 


ti 

"n 

c 

D 

0 

' 

e 

r 

t 

t 

( 

i 






Robinson Crusoe 


21 3 

tinder-box, which I had made of the lock of one of the 
muskets, with some wildfire in the pan. 

Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large 
candles of my own making — for I made very good candles 
now of goat's tallow — and going into this low place, I was 
obliged to creep upon all-fours, as I have said, almost ten 
yards ; which, by the way, I thought was a venture bold 
enough, considering that I knew not how far it might go, 
nor what was beyond it. When I was got through the 
strait I found the roof rose higher up — I believe near 
twenty-foot. But never was such a glorious sight seen in 
the island, I dare say, as it was to look round the sides 
and roof of this vault or cave. The walls reflected a hun- 
dred thousand lights to me from my two candles. What 
it was in the rock, whether diamonds or any other precious 
stones, or gold, which I rather supposed it to be, I knew not. 

The place I was in was a most delightful cavity or 
grotto of its kind as could be expected, though perfectly 
dark. The floor was dry and level, and had a sort of 
small loose gravel upon it, so that there was no nauseous 
or venomous creature to be seen, neither was there any 
damp or wet on the sides or roof. The only difficulty in 
it was the entrance, which, however, as it was a place of 
security, and such a retreat as I wanted, I thought that 
was a convenience ; so that I was really rejoiced at the 
discovery, and resolved without any delay to bring some 
of those things which I was most anxious about to this 
place. Particularly, I resolved to bring hither my maga- 
zine of powder and all my spare arms ; namely, two 
fowling-pieces, for I had three in all ; and three muskets, 
for of them I had eight in all. So I kept at my castle 
only five, which stood ready mounted, like pieces of cannon, 
on my outmost fence, and were ready also to take out 
upon any expedition. 


214 


The Life and Adventures of 


Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, I took 
occasion to open the barrel of powder which I took up out 
of the sea, and which had been wet ; and I found that the 
water had penetrated about three or four inches into the 
powder on every side, which, caking and growing hard, 
had preserved the inside like a kernel in a shell. So that 
I had near sixty pounds of very good powder in the centre 
of the cask, and this was an agreeable discovery to me at 
that time. So I carried all away thither, never keeping 
above two or three pound of powder with me in my castle 
for fear of a surprise of any kind. I also carried thither 
all the lead I had left, for bullets. 

I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, 
which were said to live in caves and holes in the rocks, 
where none could come at them. For I persuaded myself, 
while I was here, if five hundred savages were to hunt 
me, they could never find me out; or if they did, they 
would not venture to attack me here. 

The old goat, who I found expiring, died in the mouth * 
of the cave the next day after I made this discovery ; and 
I found it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw 
him in and cover him with earth, than to drag him out. 
So I interred him there to prevent offence to my nose. 

I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this 
island, and was so naturalized to the place and to the 
manner of living, that could I have but enjoyed the cer- 
tainty that no savages would come to the place to disturb 
me, I could have been content to have capitulated for 
spending the rest of my time there even to the last mo- 
ment, till I had laid me down and died, like the old goat 
in the cave. I had also arrived to some little diversions 
and amusements, which made the time pass more pleas- 
antly with me a great deal than it did before. At first, 

I had taught my Poll, as I noted before, to speak ; and 


Robinson Crusoe 


2I 5 


he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, 
that it was very pleasant to me ; and he lived with me no 
less than six-and-twenty years. How long he might live 
afterwards I know not ; though I know they have a notion 
in the Brazils that they live a hundred years. Perhaps 
poor Poll may be alive there still, calling after poor Robin 
Crusoe to this day. I wish no Englishman the ill-luck 
to come there and hear him ; but if he did, he would cer- 
tainly believe it was the devil. My dog was a very pleas- 
ant and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen 
years of my time, and then died of mere old age. As for 
my cats, ... as I have observed . . . P was obliged to 
shoot several of them at first, to keep them from devour- 
ing me and all I had. But at length, when the two old 
ones I brought with me were gone, and after some time 
continually driving them from me, and letting them have 
no provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods except 
two or three favorites, which I kept tame, and whose young, 
... I always drowned. And these were part of my family. 
Besides these, I always kept two or three household kids 
about me, which I taught to feed out of my hand. And 
I had two more parrots which talked pretty well, and 
would all call Robin Crusoe, but none like my first. Nor 
indeed did I take the pains with any of them that I had 
done with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls, whose 
names I know not, which I caught upon the shore and 
cut their wings. And the little stakes which I had planted 
before my castle wall being now grown up to a good thick 
grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees, and 
bred there ; which was very agreeable to me. So that, as 
I said above, I began to be very well contented with the 
life I led, if it might but have been secured from the 
dread of the savages. 

But it was otherwise directed. And it may not be amiss 


2 1 6 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 


for all people who shall meet with my story to make this 
just observation from it ; namely, how frequently in the 
course of our lives the evil which in itself we seek most to 
shun, and which, when we are fallen into is the most dread- 
ful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our 
deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from 
the affliction we are fallen into. I could give many examples 
of this in the course of my unaccountable life, but in noth- 
ing was it more particularly remarkable than in the circum- 
stances of my last years of solitary residence in this island. 

It was now the month of December, as I said above, in 
my twenty-third year ; and this being the southern solstice, 
for winter I cannot call it, was the particular time of my 
harvest, and required my being pretty much abroad in the 
fields : when going out pretty early in the morning, even 
before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with see- 
ing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from 
me of about two mile, towards the end of the island where 
I had observed some savages had been as before ; but not 
on the other side, but, to my great affliction, it was on my 
side of the island. 

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stepped 
short within my grove, not daring to go out lest I might 
be surprised ; and yet I had no more peace within, from 
the apprehensions I had that if these savages, in rambling 
over the island, should find my corn standing or cut, or any 
of my works and improvements, they would immediately 
conclude that there were people in the place, and would 
then never give over till they had found me out. In this 
extremity I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the 
ladder after me, and made all things without look as wild 
and natural as I could. 

Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a pos- 
ture of defence. I loaded all my cannon, as I called them 



A 30 roc fire upon tl^^fyore 









2l8 


The Life and Adventures of 


— that is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon 
my new fortification — and all my pistols, and resolved to 
defend myself to the last gasp ; not forgetting seriously to 
commend myself to the divine protection, and earnestly 
to pray to God to deliver me out of the hands of the bar- 
barians. And in this posture I continued about two hours, 
but began to be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, 
for T had no spies to send out. 

After sitting a while longer, and musing what I should 
do in this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance 
any longer ; so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill, 
where there was a flat place, as I observed before, and 
then pulling the ladder up after me, I set it up again, and 
mounted to the top of the hill, and pulling out my perspec- 
tive-glass, which I had taken on purpose, I laid me down 
flat on my belly on the ground, and began to look for the 
place. I presently found there was no less than nine 
naked savages, sitting round a small fire they had made, 
not to warm them, for they had no need of that, the 
weather being extreme hot, but, as I supposed, to dress 
some of their barbarous diet of human flesh, which they had 
brought with them, whether alive or dead I could not know. 

They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled 
up upon the shore ; and as it was then tide of ebb, they 
seemed to me to wait for the return of the flood to go 
away again. It is not easy to imagine what confusion this 
sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side 
the island, and so near me too ; but when I observed their 
coming must be always with the current of the ebb, I 
began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind, being sat- 
isfied that I might go abroad with safety all the time of 
the tide of flood, if they were not on shore before. And 
having made this observation, I went abroad about my har- 
vest-work with the more composure. 


Robinson Crusoe 


219 


As I expected, so it proved ; for as soon as the tide made 
to the westward, I saw them all take boat, and row, or pad- 
dle, as we call it, all away. I should have observed that 
for an hour and more before they went off they went to 
dancing, and I could easily discern their postures and ges- 
tures by my glasses. I could not perceive, by my nicest 
observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not 
the least covering upon them. 

As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two 
guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and 
my great sword by my side without a scabbard, and with 
all the speed I was able to make, I went away to the hill 
where I had discovered the first appearance of all ; and as 
soon as I gat thither, which was not less than two hours 
(for I could not go apace, being so laden with arms as I 
was), I perceived there had been three canoes more of 
savages on that place ; and looking out farther, I saw they 
were all at sea together, making over for the main. 

This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when, going 
down to the shore, I could see the marks of horror which 
the dismal work they had been about had left behind it ; 
namely, the blood, the bones, and part of the flesh of human 
bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches with merri- 
ment and sport. I was so filled with indignation at the 
sight, that I began now to premeditate the destruction of the 
next that I saw there, let them be who or how many soever. 

It seemed evident to me that the visits which they thus 
make to this island are not very frequent ; for it was above 
fifteen months before any more of them came on shore 
there again ; — that is to say, I never saw them, or any foot- 
steps or signals of them, in all that time ; for as to the rainy 
seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not 
so far. Yet all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason 
of the constant apprehensions I was in of their coming 


220 


The Life and Adventures of 


upon me by surprise ; from whence I observe that the 
expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, espe- 
cially if there is no room to shake off that expectation or 
those apprehensions. 

During all this time I was in the murdering humor, and 
took up most of my hours, which should have been better 
employed, in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon 
them the very next time I should see them, especially if 
they should be divided, as they were the last time, into two 
parties. Nor did I consider at all that if I killed one party 
— suppose ten or a dozen — I was still the next day, or 
week, or month, to kill another, and so another, even ad 
infinitum , till I should be at length no less a murderer 
than they were in being man-eaters, and perhaps much 
more so. 

I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of 
mind, expecting that I should one day or other fall into 
the hands of these merciless creatures ; and if I did at any 
time venture abroad, it was not without looking round me 
with the greatest care and caution imaginable. And now 
I found to my great comfort how happy it was that I pro- 
vided for a tame flock or herd of goats ; for I durst not 
upon any account fire my gun, especially near that side of 
the island where they usually came, lest I should alarm the 
savages ; and if they had fled from me now, I was sure to 
have them come back again, with perhaps two or three 
hundred canoes with them, in a few days, and then I knew 
what to expect. 

However, I wore out a year and three months more 
before I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I 
found them again, as I shall soon observe. It is true they 
might have been there once or twice, but either they made 
no stay, or at least I did not hear them ; but in the month 
of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four-and- 


Robinson Crusoe 


221 


; twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter with them, 

j of which in its place. 

| The perturbation of my mind during this fifteen or six- 
teen months’ interval was very great. I slept unquiet, 
dreamed always frightful dreams, and often started out of 
my sleep in the night. In the day great troubles over- 
whelmed my mind, and in the night I dreamed often of kill- 
ing the savages, and of the reasons why I might justify the 
doing of it. But to waive all this for a while, it was in the 
middle of May, on the sixteenth day, I think, as well as 
my poor wooden calendar would reckon ; for I marked all 
upon the post still. I say it was the sixteenth of May, 
that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with a 
great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul 
night it was after it. I know not what was the particular 
occasion of it; but as I was reading in the Bible, and 
taken up with very serious thoughts about my present 
condition, I was surprised with a noise of a gun, as I 
thought, fired at sea. 

This was, to be sure, a surprise of a quite different 
nature from any I had met with before ; for the notions 
this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind. 
I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and in a trice 
clapped my ladder to the middle place of the rock, and 
pulled it after me, and mounting it the second time, got to 
the top of the hill, the very moment that a flash of fire bid 
me listen for a second gun, which accordingly in about 
half a minute I heard, and by the sound knew that it was 
from that part of the sea where I was driven down the 
current in my boat. 

I immediately considered that this must be some ship in 
distress, and that they had some comrade or some other 
ship in company, and fired these guns for signals of dis- 
tress and to obtain help. I had this presence of mind at 


222 


The Life and Adventures of 


that minute as to think that though I could not help them, 
it may be they might help me ; so I brought together all 
the dry wood I could get at hand, and making a good 
handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood 
was dry and blazed freely, and though the wind blew very 
hard, yet it burned fairly out, that I was certain if there 
was any such thing as a ship they must needs see it ; and 
no doubt they did, for as soon as ever my fire blazed 
up I heard another gun, and after that several others, all 
from the same quarter. I plied my fire all night long till 
day broke ; and when it was broad day, and the air cleared 
up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full east of 
the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish, 
no not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and the 
weather still something hazy also ; at least, it was so out 
at sea. 

I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived 
that it did not move ; so I presently concluded that it was 
a ship at an anchor ; and being eager, you may be sure, to 
be satisfied, I took my gun in my hand, and ran toward 
the south side of the island, to the rocks where I had for- 
merly been carried away with the current ; and getting up 
there, the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I 
could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship 
cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which 
I found when I was out in my boat ; and which rocks, as 
they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind 
of counter-stream or eddy, were the occasion of my recov- 
ering from the most desperate hopeless condition that ever 
I had been in in all my life. 

Thus, what is one man’s safety is another man’s destruc- 
tion ; for it seems these men, whoever they were, being 
out of their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly under 
water, had been driven upon them in the night, the wind 


Robinson Crusoe 


223 


blowing hard at east and east-northeast. Had they seen 
the island, as I must necessarily suppose they did not, they 
must, as I thought, have endeavored to have saved them- 
selves on shore by the help of their boat. But their firing 
of guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined, 
my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First, I imagined 
that upon seeing my light they might have put themselves 
into their boat, and have endeavored to make the shore ; 
but that the sea going very high, they might have been 
cast away. Other times I imagined that they might have 
lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways, as 
particularly by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, 
which many times obliges men to stave or take in pieces 
their boat, and sometimes to throw it overboard with their 
own hands. Other times I imagined they had some other 
ship or ships in company, who, upon the signals of distress 
they had made, had taken them up and carried them off. 
Other whiles I fancied they were all gone off to sea in 
their boat, and being hurried away by the current that I 
had been formerly in, were carried out into the great 
ocean, where there was nothing but misery and perishing, 
and that perhaps they might by this time think of starv- 
ing, and of being in a condition to eat one another. 

As all these were but conjectures at best, so in the con- 
dition I was in I could do no more than look on upon the 
misery of the poor men and pity them ; which had still 
this good effect on my side, that it gave me more and 
more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily and 
comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition ; 
and that of two ships’ companies who were now cast away 
upon this part of the world, not one life should be spared 
but mine. I learned here again to observe that it is very 
rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition 
of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see 


224 The Life and Adventures of 

something or other to be thankful for, and may see others 
in worse circumstances than our own. 

Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I 
could not so much as see room to suppose any of them 
were saved. Nothing could make it rational, so much as 
to wish or expect that they did not all perish there, except 
the possibility only of their being taken up by another 
ship in company ; and this was but mere possibility indeed, 
for I saw not the least signal or appearance of any such 
thing. 

I cannot explain by any possible energy of words what 
a strange longing or hankering of desires I felt in my soul 
upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus : “ Oh that 
there had been but one or two — nay, or but one soul 
saved out of this ship, to have escaped to me ; that I 
might but have had one companion, one fellow-creature to 
have spoken to me, and to have conversed with.” In all 
the time of my solitary life I never felt so earnest, so 
strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or 
so deep a regret at the want of it. 

There are some secret moving springs in the affections, 
which, when they are set agoing by some object in view, 
or be it some object, though not in view, yet rendered 
present to the mind by the power of imagination, that 
motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity to such vio- 
lent eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it 
is insupportable. 

Such were these earnest wishings that but one man had 
been saved ! “Oh, that it had been but one ! ” I believe 
I repeated the words, “ Oh, that it had been but one ! ” a 
thousand times ; and the desires were so moved by it, that 
when I spoke the words my hands would clinch together, 
and my fingers press the palms of my hands, that if I had 
had any soft thing in my hand, it would have crushed it 


Robinson Crusoe 


225 

involuntarily ; and my teeth in my head would strike to- 
gether, and set against one another so strong, that for 
some time I could not part them again. 

Let the naturalists explain these things, and the reason 
and manner of them. All I can say to them is, to describe 
the fact, which was even surprising to me when I found 
it ; though I knew not from what it should proceed. It 
was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes and of strong 
ideas formed in my mind, realizing the comfort which the 
conversation of one of my fellow-Christians would have 
been to me. 

But it was not to be. Either their fate or mine, or both, 
forbid it'; for until the last year of my being on this island, 
I never knew whether any were saved out of that ship or 
no ; and had only the affliction some days after, to see the 
corpse of a drowned boy come on shore, at the end of the 
island which was next the shipwreck. He had on no 
clothes, but a seaman’s waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed 
linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt ; but nothing to direct 
me so much as to guess what nation he was of. He had 
nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight and a tobacco- 
pipe. The last was to me of ten times more value than 
the first. 

It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out 
in my boat to this wreck ; not doubting that I might find 
something on board that might be useful to me. But that 
did not altogether press me so much as the possibility that 
there might be yet some living creature on board, whose 
life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, 
comfort my own to the last degree ; and this thought clung 
so to my heart that I could not be quiet, night nor day, 
but I must venture out in my boat on board this, wreck ; 
and committing the rest to God’s providence, I thought 
the impression was so strong upon my mind that it could 
Q 


226 The Life and Adventures of 

not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible 
direction, and that I should be wanting to myself if I did 
not go. 

Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to 
my castle, prepared everything for my voyage, took a 
quantity of bread, a great pot for fresh water, a compass 
to steer by, a bottle of rum, — for I had still a great deal 
of that left, — a basket full of raisins. And thus loading | 
myself with everything necessary, I went down to my boat, 
got the water out of her, and got her afloat, loaded all my 
cargo in her, and then went home again for more. My 
second cargo was a great bag full of rice, the umbrella to 
set up over my head for shade, another large pot full of 
fresh water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or 
barley cakes, more than before, with a bottle of goat’s 
milk, and a cheese ; all which, with great labor and sweat, 

I brought to my boat ; and praying to God to direct my 
voyage, I put out, and rowing or paddling the canoe along 
the shore, I came at last to the utmost point of the island 
on that side ; namely, northeast. And now I was to 
launch out into the ocean, and either to venture, or not to 
venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ran con- 
stantly on both sides of the island, at a distance, and which 
were very terrible to me, from the remembrance of the 
hazard I had been in before, and my heart began to fail 
me ; for I foresaw that if I was driven into either of those 
currents, I should be carried a vast way out to sea, and 1 
perhaps out of my reach or sight of the island again ; and 
that then, as my boat was but small, if any little gale of 
wind should rise, I should be inevitably lost. 

These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I began 
to give over my enterprise, and having hauled my boat 
into a little creek on the shore, I stepped out, and sat me 
down upon a little rising bit of ground, very pensive and 


Robinson Crusoe 


227 


anxious, between fear and desire about my voyage ; when, 
as I was musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned 
and the flood come on, upon which my going was for so 
many hours impracticable. Upon this, presently it occurred 
to me that I should go up to the highest piece of ground 
I could find, and observe, if I could, how the sets of the 
tide or currents lay when the flood came in, that I might 
judge whether, if I was driven one way out, I might not 
expect to be driven another way home, with the same rapid- 
ness of the currents. This thought was no sooner in my 
head, but I cast my eye upon a little hill, which sufficiently 
overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a 
clear view of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which 
way I was to guide myself in my return. Here I found 
that as the current of the ebb set out close by the south 
point of the island, so the current of the flood set in close 
by the shore of the north side, and that I had nothing to do 
but to keep to the north of the island in my return, and I 
should do well enough. 

Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the next 
morning to set out with the first of the tide ; and reposing 
myself for the night in the canoe, under the great watch- 
coat I mentioned, I launched out. I made first a little out 
to sea full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the cur- 
rent, which set eastward, and which carried me at a great 
rate, and yet did not so hurry me as the southern side cur- 
rent had done before, and so as to take from me all govern- 
ment of the boat ; but having a strong steerage with my 
paddle, I went at a great rate, directly for the wreck, and 
in less than two hours I came up to it. 

It was a dismal sight to look at. The ship, which by 
its building was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between 
two rocks ; all the stern and quarter of her was beaten to 
pieces with the sea ; and as her forecastle, which stuck in 


228 


The Life and Adventures of 


the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast 
and foremast were brought by the board — that is to say, 
broken short off ; but her boltsprit was sound, and the 
head and bow appeared firm. When I came close to her, 
a dog appeared upon her, who seeing me coming, yelped 
and cried ; and as soon as I called him, jumped into the 
sea to come to me, and I took him into the boat, but found 
him almost dead for hunger and thirst. I gave him a 
cake of my bread, and he ate it like a ravenous wolf that 
had been starving a fortnight in the snow. I then gave 
the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I would 
have let him, he would have burst himself. 

After this I went on board; but the first sight I met 
with was two men drowned in the cook-room, or forecastle 
of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. I con- 
cluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it 
being in a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually 
over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were 
strangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as 
much as if they had been under water. Besides the dog, 
there was nothing left in the ship that had life ; nor any 
goods that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. 
There were some casks of liquor — whether wine or brandy, 
I knew not — which lay lower in the hold, and which, the 
water being ebbed out, I could see ; but they were too big 
to meddle with. I saw several chests, which I believed 
belonged to some of the seamen, and I got two of them 
into the boat, without examining what was in them. 

Had the stern of the ship been fixed and the fore part 
broken off, I am persuaded I might have made a good 
voyage ; for by what I found in these two chests, I had 
room to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on 
board ; and if I may guess by the course she steered, she 
must have been bound from the Buenos Ayres or the Rio 


Robinson Crusoe 


229 


de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the 
Brazils, to the Havannah, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so, 
perhaps, to Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure 
in her, but of no use at that time to anybody ; and what 
became of the rest of her people I then knew not. 

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, 
of about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with 
much difficulty. There were several muskets in a cabin, 
and a great powder-horn, with about four pounds of powder 
in it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion for them — so 
I left them ; but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel 
* and tongs, which I wanted extremely ; as also two little 
, brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a grid- 
iron. And with this cargo and the dog I came away, the 
tide beginning to make home again. And the same even- 
ing, about an hour within night, I reached the island again, 

I weary and fatigued to the last degree. 

I reposed that night in the boat, and in the morning I 
! resolved to harbor what I had gotten in my new cave, 
not to carry it home to my castle. After refreshing my- 
self, I got all my cargo on shore, and began to examine 
the particulars. The cask of liquor I found to be a kind 
of rum, but not such as we had at the Brazils — and, in 
a word, not at all good ; but when I came to open the 
chests, I found several things of great use to me. For 
example, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an 
extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial waters, fine, 
and very good ; the bottles held about three pints each, 
and were tipped with silver : I found two pots of very 
good succades, or sweetmeats, so fastened also on top 
that the salt water had not hurt them ; and two more of 
the same which the water had spoiled : I found some 
very good shirts, which were very welcome to me, and 
about a dozen and half of linen white handkerchiefs, and 


230 


The Life and Adventures of 


colored neckcloths — the former were also very welcome, 
being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day : 
besides this, when I came to the till in the chests, I found 
there three great bags of pieces of eight, which held out 
about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of them, 
wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some 
small bars or wedges of gold ; I suppose they might all 
weigh near a pound. 

The other chest I found had some clothes in it, but of 
little value ; but by the circumstances it must have belonged 
to the gunner’s mate, though there was no powder in it but 
about two pound of fine glazed powder in three small flasks, 
kept, I suppose, for charging their fowling-pieces on occa- 
sion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this voyage 
that was of any use to me : for as to the money, I had no 
manner of occasion for it ; it was to me as the dirt under 
my feet ; and I would have given it all for three or four 
pair of English shoes and stockings, which were things I 
greatly wanted, but had not had on my feet now for many 
years. I had, indeed, gotten two pair of shoes now, which 
I took off of the feet of the two drowned men who I saw in 
the wreck ; and I found two pair more in one of the chests, 
which were very welcome to me ; but they were not like 
our English shoes, either for ease or service, being rather 
what we call pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman’s 
chest about fifty pieces of eight in royals, but no gold. I 
suppose this belonged to a poorer man than the other, which 
seemed to belong to some officer. 

Well, however, I lugged this money home to my cave, 
and laid it up, as I had done that before which I brought 
from our own ship ; but it was great pity, as I said, that the 
other part of this ship had not come to my share — for I 
am satisfied I might have loaded my canoe several times 
over with money, which, if I had ever escaped to England, 


Robinson Crusoe 


231 

would have lain here safe enough till I might have come 
again and fetched it. 

Having now brought all my things on shore and secured 
them, I went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her 
along the shore to her old harbor, where I laid her up, and 
made the best of my way to my old habitation, where I 
found everything safe and quiet : so I began to repose my- 
self, live after my old fashion, and take care of my family 
affairs ; and for a while I lived easy enough ; only that I 
was more vigilant than I used to be, looked out oftener, 
and did not go abroad so much ; and if at any time I did 
stir with any freedom, it was always to the east part of the 
island, where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never 
came, and where I could go without so many precautions, 
and such a load of arms and ammunition, as I always 
carried with me if I went the other way. 

I lived in this condition near two years more. But my 
unlucky head, that was always to let me know it was born 
to make my body miserable, was all the two years filled 
with projects and designs how, if it were possible, I might 
get away from this island : for sometimes I was for mak- 
ing another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told 
me that there was nothing left there worth the hazard of 
my voyage ; sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes 
another ; and I believe verily, if I had had the boat that I 
went from Sallee in, I should have ventured to sea, bound 
anywhere, I knew not whither. 

I have been, in all my circumstances, a memento to 
those who are touched with the general plague of man- 
kind, whence, for aught I know, one-half of their miseries 
fl ow — 1 mean, that of not being satisfied with the station 
wherein God and nature hath placed them. For, not to 
look back upon my primitive condition, and the excellent 
advice of my father, the opposition to which was, as I may 


232 The Life and Adventures of 

call it, my original sin; my subsequent mistakes of the 
same kind had been the means of my coming into this 
miserable condition : for had that Providence which so 
happily had seated me at the Brazils as a planter, blessed ; 
me with confined desires, and I could have been contented 
to have gone on gradually, I might have been by this time, 

I mean in the time of my being in this island, one of the 
most considerable planters in the Brazils. Nay, I am per- 
suaded that, by the improvements I had made in that little 
time I lived there, and the increase I should probably have j 
made if I had stayed, I might have been worth a hundred 
thousand moidores. And what business had I to leave 
a settled fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving and ! 
increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, 
when patience and time would have so increased our stock 
at home that we could have bought them at our own door 
from those whose business it was to fetch them ? And 
though it had cost us something more, yet the difference 
of that price was by no means worth saving at so great a 
hazard. 

But as this is ordinarily the fate of young heads, so 
reflection upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise 
of more years or of the dear-bought experience of time. 
And so it was with me now. And yet so deep had the 
mistake taken root in my temper that I could not satisfy 
myself in my station, but was continually poring upon the 
means and possibility of my escape from this place. And 
that I may, with the greater pleasure to the reader, bring 
on the remaining part of my story, it may not be improper 
to give some account of my first conceptions on the sub- 
ject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how and 
upon what foundation I acted. 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 33 


XIII. Crusoe’s twenty-fourth year on the 
island — Crusoe’s dream — Cannibals 
, again visit the island — The dream 

realized — The escape of the savage — 
Death of his pursuers — Crusoe protects 
the savage , and names him Friday — 
Instructs and clothes him — His pleas- 
ure in finding a human companion. 

I am now to be supposed retired into my castle after my 
late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured 
under water as usual, and my condition restored to what it 
was before. I had more wealth, indeed, than I had before, 
but was not at all the’richer : for I had no more use for it 
than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came 
there. 

It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, 
the four-and-twentieth year of my first setting foot in this 
island of solitariness. I was lying in my bed or hammock 
awake, very well in health ; had no pain, no distemper, 
no uneasiness of body; no, nor any uneasiness of mind, 
more than ordinary : but could by no means close my 
eyes ; that is, so as to sleep ; no, not a wink all night 
long : otherwise that as follows. 

It is as impossible as needless to set down the innumera- 
ble crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great thor- 
oughfare of the brain, the memory, in this night’s time. I 
ran over the whole history of my life in miniature, or by 
abridgment, as I may call it, to my coming to this island, 
and also of the part of my life since I came to this island. 


234 


The Life and Adventures of 


In my reflections upon the state of my case since I came 
on shore on this island, I was comparing the happy posture 
of my affairs in the first years of my habitation here, com- 
pared to the life of anxiety, fear, and care which I had 
lived ever since I had seen the print of a foot in the sand. 
Not that I did not believe the savages had frequented the 
island even all the while, and might have been several hun- 
dreds of them at times on shore there; but I had never 
known it, and was incapable of any apprehensions about 
it. My satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was 
the same ; and I was as happy in not knowing my danger 
as if I had never really been exposed to it. This furnished 
my thoughts with many very profitable reflections, and par- 
ticularly this one : How infinitely good that Providence 
is which has provided, in its government of mankind, such 
narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things ; and 
though he walks in the midst of so many thousand dangers, 
the sight of which, if discovered to him, would distract his 
mind and sink his spirits, he is kept serene and calm by 
having the events of things hid from his eyes, and knowing 
nothing of the dangers which surround him. 

After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, 
I came to reflect seriously upon the real danger I had 
been in for so many years in this very island, and how I 
had walked about in the greatest security and with all pos- 
sible tranquillity, even when perhaps nothing but a brow 
of a hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had 
been between me and the worst kind of destruction ; 
namely, that of falling into the hands of cannibals and sav- 
ages, who would have seized on me with the same view as 
I did of a goat or a turtle, and have thought it no more 
a crime to kill and devour me than I did a pigeon or a 
curlew. I would unjustly slander myself if I should say I 
was not sincerely thankful to my great Preserver, to whose 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 35 


singular protection I acknowledged, with great humility, 
that all these unknown deliverances were due, and without 
which I must inevitably have fallen into their merciless 
hands. 

When these thoughts were over, my head was for some 
time taken up in considering the nature of these wretched 
creatures, I mean, the savages ; and how it came to pass 
in the world that the wise Governor of all things should 
give up any of his creatures to such inhumanity, nay, to 
something so much below even brutality itself, as to 
devour its own kind. But as this ended in some, at that 
time fruitless, speculations, it occurred to me to inquire 
what part of the world these wretches lived in ; how far off 
the coast was from whence they came ; what they ventured 
over so far from home for ; what kind of boats they had ; 
and why I might not order myself and my business so that 
I might be as able to go over thither as they were to come 
to me. 

I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I 
should do with myself when I came thither, what would 
become of me if I fell into the hands of the savages, or 
how I should escape from them if they attempted me ; no, 
nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the 
coast and not be attempted by some or other of them with- 
out any possibility of delivering myself ; and if I should 
not fall into their hands, what I should do for provision, 
or whither I should bend my course ; — none of these 
thoughts, I say, so much as came in my way, but my mind 
was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing over in my 
boat to the mainland. I looked back upon my present 
condition as the most miserable that could possibly be : 
that I was not able to throw myself into anything but 
death that could be called worse; that if I reached the 
shore of the main I might perhaps meet with relief, or I 


236 


The Life and Adventures of 


might coast along, as I did on the shore of Africk, till I 
came to some inhabited country, and where I might find 
some relief ; and, after all, perhaps I might fall in with 
some Christian ship that might take me in ; and if the 
worse came to the worst I could but die, which would put 
an end to all these miseries at once. Pray note, all this 
was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, 
made as it were desperate by the long continuance of my 
troubles, and the disappointments I had met in the wreck 
I had been on board of, and where I had been so near the 
obtaining what I so earnestly longed for, namely, some- 
body to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from of 
the place where I was, and of the probable means of my 
deliverance : I say, I was agitated wholly by these 
thoughts ; all my calm of mind in my resignation to Provi- 
dence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of Heaven, 
seemed to be suspended ; and I had, as it were, no power 
to turn my thoughts to anything but to the project of a 
voyage to the main, which came upon me with such force 
and such an impetuosity of desire that it was not to be 
resisted. 

When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or 
more with such violence that it set my very blood into a 
ferment, and my pulse beat as high as if I had been in a 
fever, merely with the extraordinary fervor of my mind 
about it — nature, as if I had been fatigued and exhausted 
with the very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep. 
One would have thought I should have dreamed of it ; but 
I did not, nor of anything relating to it. But I dreamed 
that as I was going out in the morning as usual from my 
castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven sav- 
ages coming to land, and that they brought with them 
another savage, who they were going to kill in order to eat 
him ; when on a sudden the savage that they were going 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 37 

to kill jumped away and ran for his life. And I thought 
in my sleep that he came running into my little thick 
grove before my fortification to hide himself ; and that I, 
seeing him alone, and not perceiving that the others 
sought him that way, showed myself to him, and, smiling 
upon him, encouraged him : that he kneeled down to me, 
seeming to pray me to assist him ; upon which I showed 
my ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, 
and he became my servant : and that, as soon as I had 
gotten this man I said to myself ; Now I may certainly 
venture to the mainland, for this fellow will serve me as a 
pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for 
provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being 
devoured ; what places to venture into, and what to escape. 
— I waked with this thought, and was under such inex- 
pressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape 
in my dream, that the disappointments which I felt upon 
coming to myself and finding it was no more than a dream 
were equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into 
a very great dejection of spirit. 

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion, that my 
only way to go about an attempt for an escape was, if 
possible, to get a savage into my possession, and, if pos- 
sible, it should be one of their prisoners who they had con- 
demned to be eaten and should bring thither to kill. But 
these thoughts still were attended with this difficulty, that 
it was impossible to effect this without attacking a whole 
caravan of them, and killing them all. And this was not 
only a very desperate attempt and might miscarry, but, on 
the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it 
to me ; and my heart trembled at the thoughts of shedding 
so much blood, though it was for my deliverance. I need 
not repeat the arguments which occurred to me against 
this, they being the same mentioned before. But though 


238 


The Life and Adventures of 


I had other reasons to offer now — namely, that those men 
were enemies to my life, and would devour me if they could; 
that it was self-preservation in the highest degree to deliver 
myself from this death of a life, and was acting in my own 
defence as much as if they were actually assaulting me, 
and the like ; — I say, though these things argued for it, 
yet the thoughts of shedding human blood for my deliver- 
ance were very terrible to me, and such as I could by no 
means reconcile myself to, a great while. 

However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself, 
and after great perplexities about it — for all these argu- 
ments one way and another struggled in my head a long 
time — the eager, prevailing desire of deliverance at length 
mastered all the rest, and I resolved, if possible, to get one 
of those savages into my hands, cost what it would. My 
next thing then was to contrive how to do it ; and this, in- 
deed, was very difficult to resolve on. But as I could pitch 
upon no probable means for it, so I resolved to put myself 
upon the watch to see them when they came on shore, and 
leave the rest to the event, taking such measures as the 
opportunity should present, let be what would be. 

With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon 
the scout as often as possible ; and indeed so often till I 
was heartily tired of it, for it was above a year and half 
that I waited, and for great part of that time went out to 
the west end and to the southwest corner of the island 
almost every day to see for canoes, but none appeared. 
This was very discouraging, and began to trouble me 
much ; though I cannot say that it did in this case as it had 
done some time before that ; namely, wear off the edge of 
my desire to the thing. But the longer it seemed to be 
delayed, the more eager I was for it : in a word, I was not at 
first so careful to shun the sight of these savages, and avoid 
being seen by them, as I was now eager to be upon them. 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 39 


Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, two 
or three savages, if I had them, so as to make them en- 
tirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them, 
and to prevent their being able at any time to do me any 
hurt. It was a great while that I pleased myself with this 
affair; but nothing still presented. All my fancies and 
schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near me 
for a great while. 

About a year and half after I had entertained these 
notions, and by long musing had, as it were, resolved them 
all into nothing for want of an occasion to put them in exe- 
cution, I was surprised one morning early with seeing no 
less than five canoes all on shore together on my side the 
island, and the people who belonged to them all landed 
and out of my sight ! The number of them broke all my 
measures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they 
always came four or six, or sometimes more, in a boat, I 
could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my meas- 
ures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed ; so I 
lay still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted. How- 
ever, I put myself into all the same postures for an attack 
that I had formerly provided, and was just ready for action 
if anything had presented. Having waited a good while, 
listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being 
very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, 
and clambered up to the top of the hill by my two stages, 
as usual ; standing so, however, that my head did not 
appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive me 
by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my per- 
spective-glass, that they were no less than thirty in number, 
that they had a fire kindled, that they had had meat dressed. 
How they had cooked it, that I knew not, or what it was ; 
but they were all dancing, in I know not how many bar- 
barous gestures and figures, their own way round the fire. 


240 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

While I was thus looking on them I perceived by my 
perspective two miserable wretches dragged from the 
boats, where it seems they were laid by, and were now 
brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of them 
immediately fell, being knocked down, I suppose, with a 
club or wooden sword, — for that was their way, — and 
two or three others were at work immediately cutting him 
open for their cookery, while the other victim was left 
standing by himself till they should be ready for him. In 
that very moment this poor wretch, seeing himself a little 
at liberty, nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he 
started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness 
along the sands directly towards me ; I mean towards that 
part of the coast where my habitation was. 

I was dreadfully frighted, that I must acknowledge, 
when I perceived him to run my way ; and especially 
when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by the whole 
body ; and now I expected that part of my dream was 
coming to pass, and that he would certainly take shelter 
in my grove ; but I could not depend by any means upon 
my dream for the rest of it ; namely, that the other sav- 
ages would not pursue him thither and find him there. 
However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to 
recover when I found that there were not above three men 
that followed him ; and still more was I encouraged, when 
I found that he outstripped them exceedingly in running, 
and gained ground of them, so that if he could but hold it 
for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away 
from them all. 

There was between them and my castle the creek, which 
I mentioned often at the first part of my story, when I 
landed my cargoes out of the ship ; and this I saw plainly 
he must necessarily swim over, or the poor wretch would be 
taken there. But when the savage escaping came thither, 



« 






242 The Life and Adventures of 

he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up, but 
plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes or there- 
abouts, landed and ran on with exceeding strength and 
swiftness. When the three persons came to the creek, 
I found that two of them could swim, but the third could 
not, and that standing on the other side, he looked at the 
other, but went no farther; and soon after went softly 
back again, which, as it happened, was very well for him 
in the main. 

I observed that the two who swam were yet more than 
twice as long swimming over the creek as the fellow was 
that fled from them. It came now very warmly upon my 
thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was my time to 
get me a servant, and perhaps a companion or assistant ; 
and that I was called plainly by Providence to save this 
poor creature’s life. I immediately run down the ladders 
with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they 
were both but at the foot of the ladders, as I observed 
above ; and getting up again with the same haste to the 
top of the hill, I crossed toward the sea; and having a 
very short cut and all down hill, clapped myself in the way 
between the pursuers and the pursued ; hallooing aloud at 
him that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps too 
much frighted at me as at them : but I beckoned with 
my hand to him to come back ; and in the meantime I 
slowly advanced towards the two that followed ; then rush- 
ing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down with 
the stock of my piece. I was loath to fire, because I 
would not have the rest hear; though at that distance it 
would not have been easily heard, and being out of sight 
of the smoke too, they would not have easily known what 
to make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the 
other who pursued with him stopped, as if he had been 
frighted, and I advanced apace towards him ; but as I came 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 4 3 


nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and 
was fitting it to shoot at me ; so I was then necessitated to 
shoot at him first, which I did and killed him at the first 
shoot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though 
he saw both his enemies fallen, and killed, as he thought, 
yet was so frighted with the fire and noise of my piece, 
that he stood stockstill, and neither came forward nor went 
backward, though he seemed rather inclined to fly still than 
to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to 
come forward, which he easily understood, and came a 
little way, then stopped again, and then a little farther, 
and stopped again, and I could then perceive that he stood 
trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just 
been to be killed as his two enemies were. I beckoned 
him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of 
encouragement that I could think of, and he came nearer 
and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps in 
token of acknowledgment for my saving his life. I smiled 
at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to 
come still nearer. At length he came close to me, and 
then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground, and laid 
his head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set 
my foot upon his head : this, it seems, was in token of 
swearing to be my slave forever. I took him up and 
made much of him, and encouraged him all I could. But 
there was more work to do yet ; for I perceived the sav- 
age whom I knocked down was not killed, but stunned, with 
the blow, and began to come to himself ; so I pointed to 
him, and showing him the savage, that he was not dead. 
Upon this he spoke some words to me, and though I could 
not understand them yet I thought they were pleasant to 
hear, for they were the first sound of a man’s voice that I 
had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. 
But there was no time for such reflections now. The sav- 


244 The Life and Adventures of 

age who was knocked down recovered himself so far as to 
sit up upon the ground, and I perceived that my savage 
began to be afraid ; but when I saw that, I presented my 
other piece at the man, as if I would shoot him. Upon 
this my savage, for so I called him now, made a motion to 
me to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt 
by my side ; so I did. He no sooner had it, but he runs to 
his enemy, and at one blow cut off his head as cleverly, 
no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or 
better; which I thought very strange for one who I had 
reason to believe never saw a sword in his life before, 
except their own wooden swords. However, it seems, as I 
learned afterwards, they made their wooden swords so 
sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut 
off heads even with them, ay, and arms, and that at one 
blow too. When he had done this, he comes laughing to 
me in sign of triumph, and brought me the sword again, 
and with abundance of gestures, which I did not under- 
stand, laid it down with the head of the savage that he had 
killed just before me. 

But that which astonished him most, was to know how 
I had killed the other Indian so far off. So pointing to 
him, he made signs to me to let him go to him ; so I bade 
him go as well as I could. When he came to him he stood 
like one amazed, looking at him, turned him first on one 
side, then on the other, looked at the wound the bullet had 
made, which it seems was just in his breast, where it had 
made a hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed ; 
but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took 
up his bow and arrows and came back, so I turned to go 
away, and beckoned to him to follow me, making signs to 
him that more might come after them. 

Upon this he signed to me that he should bury them 
with sand, that they might not be seen by the rest if they 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 4 5 


followed ; and so I made signs again to him to do so. He 
fell to work, and in an instant he had scraped a hole in 
the sand with his hands, big enough to bury the first in, 
and then dragged him into it, and covered him, and did 
so also by the other. I believe he had buried them both 
in a quarter of an hour. Then calling him away I carried 
him, not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the 
farther part of the island. So I did not let my dream 
come to pass in that part ; namely, that he came into my 
grove for shelter. 

Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, 
and a draught of water, which I found he was indeed in 
great distress for by his running. And having refreshed 
him, I made signs for him to go lie down and sleep, point- 
ing to a place where I had laid a great parcel of rice straw, 
and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself 
sometimes ; so the poor creature lay down and went to 
sleep. 

He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, 
with straight strong limbs, not too large, tall and well 
shaped, and as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. 
He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly 
aspect ; but seemed to have something very manly in his 
face ; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of an 
European in his countenance too, especially when he 
smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like 
wool ; his forehead very high and large, and a great vivac- 
ity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The color of 
his skin was not quite black, but very tawny ; and yet not 
of an ugly yellow nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and 
Virginians, and other natives of America are ; but of a 
bright kind of a dun olive color, that had in it something 
very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His 
face was round and plump ; his nose small, not flat like 


246 The Life and Adventures of 

the negroes ; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine 
teeth well set, and white as ivory. After he had slum- 
bered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he waked 
again, and comes out of the cave to me, for I had been 
milking my goats, which I had in the enclosure just by. 
When he espied me, he came running to me, laying him- 
self down again upon the ground, with all the possible 
signs of an humble thankful disposition, making many 
antic gestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat 
upon the ground, close to my foot, and sets my other foot 
upon his head, as he had done before ; and after this made 
all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and submission 
imaginable, to let me know how he would serve me as 
long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and 
let him know I was very well pleased with him. In a lit- 
tle time I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak 
to me. And first, I made him know his name should be 
Friday, which was the day I saved his life. I called him 
so for the memory of the time. I likewise taught him to 
say Master, and then let him know that was to be my 
name. I likewise taught him to say Yes and No, and to 
know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an 
earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and 
sop my bread in it. And I gave him a cake of bread to 
do the like, which he quickly complied with, and made 
signs that it was very good for him. 

I kept there with him all that night ; but as soon as it 
was day I beckoned to him to come with me, and let him 
know I would give him some clothes ; at which he seemed 
very glad, for he was stark naked. As we went by the 
place where he had buried the two men he pointed exactly 
to the place, and showed me the marks that he had made 
to find them again, making signs to me that we should dig 
them up again and eat them ! At this I appeared very 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 47 


angry, expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I would 
vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand 
to him to come away ; which he did immediately, with great 
submission. I then led him up to the top of the hill, to 
see if his enemies were gone ; and, pulling out my glass, I 
looked and saw plainly the place where they had been, but 
no appearance of them, or of their canoes ; so that it was 
plain that they were gone, and had left their two comrades 
behind them, without any search after them. 

But I was not content with this discovery ; but having 
now more courage, and consequently more curiosity, I took 
my man Friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand 
with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found he 
could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for 
me, and I two for myself, and away we marched to the 
place where these creatures had been, for I had a mind 
now to get some fuller intelligence of them. When I came 
to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my 
heart sunk within me at the horror of the spectacle. Indeed 
it was a dreadful sight — at least it was so to me ; though 
Friday made nothing of it. The place was covered with 
human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, great pieces 
of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, mangled and 
scorched ; and, in short, all the tokens of the triumphant 
feast they had been making there, after a victory over their 
enemies. I saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of 
three or four legs and feet, and abundance of other parts 
of the bodies ; and Friday, by his signs, made me under- 
stand that they brought over four prisoners to feast upon ; 
that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing 
to himself, was the fourth. That there had been a great 
battle between them and their next king, whose subject it 
seems he had been one of ; and that they had taken a great 
number of prisoners, all which were carried to several 


248 


The Life and Adventures of 


places by those that had taken them in the fight, in order to 
feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches upon 
those they brought hither. 

I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and 
whatever remained, and lay them together on a heap, and 
make a great fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I 
found Friday had still a hankering stomach after some of 
the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature ; but I dis- 
covered so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and 
at the least appearance of it, that he durst not discover 
it ; for I had by some means let him know that I would kill 
him if he offered it. 

When we had done this, we came back to our castle, and 
there I fell to work for my man Friday; and first of all I 
gave him a pair of linen drawers, which I had out of the 
poor gunner’s chest I mentioned, and which I found in the 
wreck, and which with a little alteration fitted him very 
well. Then I made him a jerkin of goat-skin, as well as 
my skill would allow, and I was now grown a tolerable good 
tailor ; and I gave him a cap which I had made of a hare- 
skin, very convenient and fashionable enough ; and thus 
he was clothed for the present tolerably well, and was mighty 
well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his 
master. It is true, he went awkwardly in these things at 
first ; wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and 
the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the 
inside of his arms ; but a little easing them where he com- 
plained they hurt him, and using himself to them, at length 
he took to them very well. 

The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, 
I began to consider where I should lodge him; and that 
I might do well for him, and yet be perfectly easy my- 
self, I made a little tent for him in the vacant place 
between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last, 


Robinson Crusoe 


249 

and in the outside of the first. And as there was a door 
or entrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed 
doorcase, and a door to it of boards, and set it up in the 
passage, a little within the entrance ; and causing the door 
to open on the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in 
my ladders too; so that Friday could no way come at me 
in the inside of my innermost wall without making so 
much noise in getting over, that it must needs waken me. 
For my first wall had now a complete roof over it of long 
poles covering all my tent, and leaning up to the side of 
the hill, which was again laid cross with smaller sticks 
instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness 
with the rice straw, which was strong like reeds ; and at 
the hole or place which was left to go in or out by the 
ladder, I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had 
been attempted on the outside, would not have opened at 
all, but would have fallen down and made a great noise ; 
and as to weapons, I took them all in to my side every 
night. 



T)ss.ricii2cj rourta Tt^e. fnx^ 


250 


The Life and Adventures of 


XI V. Friday's education — He is cured of 
cannibalism — He tells of his country 
and people — Crusoe instructs Friday 
in religion — Friday's difficulties and 
Crusoe's content. 

But I needed none of this precaution ; for never man 
had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday 
was to me ; without passions, sullenness, or designs, per- 
fectly obliged and engaged ; his very affections were tied 
to me, like those of a child to a father, and I daresay he 
would have sacrificed his life for the saving mine upon 
any occasion whatsoever. The many testimonies he gave 
me of this, put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me 
that I needed to use no precautions as to my safety on his 
account. 

This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that 
with wonder, that however it had pleased God, in his 
providence, and in the government of the works of his 
hands, to take from so great a part of the world of 
his creatures the best uses to which their faculties and 
the powers of their souls are adapted ; yet that he has 
bestowed upon them the same powers, the same reason, 
the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness and 
obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs, 
the same sense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the 
capacities of doing good and receiving good, that he has 
given to us ; and that when he pleases to offer to them 
occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more 


Robinson Crusoe 


251 


ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they were 
bestowed than we are. And this made me very melan- 
choly sometimes, in reflecting, as the several occasions 
presented, how mean a use we make of all these, even 
though we have these powers enlightened by the great 
Lamp of instruction, the Spirit of God, and by the knowl- 
edge of his Word, added to our understanding; and why 
it has pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge from 
so many millions of souls, who, if I might judge by this 
poor savage, would make a much better use of it than 
we did. 

From hence I sometimes was led too far, to invade the 
sovereignty of Providence, and, as it were, arraign the 
justice of so arbitrary a disposition of things, that should 
hide that light from some, and reveal it to others, and yet 
expect a like duty from both. But I shut it up, and checked 
my thoughts with this conclusion : first, That we did not 
know by what light and law these should be condemned ; 
but that as God was necessarily, and by the nature of his 
being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not be but that 
if these creatures were all sentenced to absence from him- 
self, it was on account of sinning against that light which, 
as the Scripture says, was a law to themselves; and by 
such rules as their consciences would acknowledge to be 
just, though the foundation was not discovered to us. 
And, secondly, That still as we are all the clay in the 
hand of the Potter, no vessel could say to him, Why hast 
thou formed me thus ? 

But to return to my new companion. I was greatly 
delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him 
everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, 
and helpful ; but especially to make him speak, and under- 
stand me when I spake: and he was the aptest scholar 
that ever was, and particularly was so merry, so constantly 


252 The Life and Adventures of 

diligent, and so pleased, when he could but understand me, 
or make me understand him, that it was very pleasant to j 
me to talk to him. And now my life began to be so easy, j 
that I began to say to myself, that could I but have been 
safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to 
remove from the place while I lived. 

After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, 

I thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid 
way of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, 

I ought to let him taste other flesh ; so I took him out with 
me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending 
to kill a kid out of my own flock, and bring him home and 
dress it ; but, as I was going, I saw a she-goat lying down 
in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I catched 
hold of Friday. “Hold,” says I, “stand still;” and made 
signs to him not to stir. Immediately I presented my piece, 
shot, and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who 
had at a distance indeed seen me kill the savage his enemy, 
but did not know, or could imagine, how it was done, was i 
sensibly surprised, trembled, and shook, and looked so 
amazed, that I thought he would have sunk down. He 
did not see the kid I had shot at, or perceive I had killed 
it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel if he was not wounded, 
and, as I found, presently thought I was resolved to kill 
him ; for he came and kneeled down to me, and embracing 
my knees, said a great many things I did not understand, 
but I could easily see that the meaning was to pray me not 
to kill him. 

I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him 
no harm, and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, 
and pointing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him 
to run and fetch it, which he did ; and while he was wonder- 
ing and looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded 
my gun again, and by and by I saw a great fowl like a 


Robinson Crusoe 


253 


hawk sit upon a tree within shot ; so, to let Friday under- 
stand a little what I would do, I called him to me again, 
pointing at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I 
thought it had been a hawk. I say, pointing to the parrot, 
and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let 
him see I would make it fall, I made him understand that 
I would shoot and kill that bird. Accordingly I fired, and 
bade him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall. 
He stood like one frighted again, notwithstanding all I had 
said to him ; and I found he was the more amazed because 
he did not see me put anything into the gun, but thought 
that there must be some wonderful fund of death and 
destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or 
anything, near or far off ; and the astonishment this created 
in him was such as could not wear off for a long time; and 
I believe, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped 
me and my gun ! As for the gun itself, he would not so 
much as touch it for several days after; but would speak 
to it, and talk to it as if it had answered him, when he was 
by himself ; which, as I afterwards learned of him, was to 
desire it not to kill him. 

Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I 
pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot; which 
he did, but stayed some time ; for the parrot, riot being quite 
dead, was fluttered a good way off from the place where 
she fell ; however, he found her, took her up, and brought 
her to me ; and, as I had perceived his ignorance about the 
gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, 
and not let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any 
other mark that might present. But nothing more offered 
at that time ; so I brought home the kid, and the same 
evening I took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I 
could ; and having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed 
some of the flesh, and made some very good broth; and 


254 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe i 

after I had begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, 
who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well. But 
that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with 
it. He made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat, 
and putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nau- ! 
seate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth i 
with fresh water after it. On the other hand, I took some i 
meat in my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and 
sputter for want of salt as fast as he had done at the salt. 
But it would not do, he would never care for salt with his 
meat, or in his broth ; at least, not a great while, and then 
but a very little. 

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was 
resolved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of 
the kid. This I did by hanging it before the fire in a string, I 
as I had seen many people do in England, setting two poles 
up, one on each side the fire, and one cross on the top, and i 
tying the string to the cross-stick, letting the meat turn 
continually. This Friday admired very much ; but, when 
he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me 
how well he liked it, that I could not but understand him ; 
and at last he told me he would never eat man’s flesh any 
more — which I was very glad to hear. 

The next day I set him to work to beating some corn 
out, and sifting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed 
before; and he soon understood how to do it as well as I, 
especially after he had seen what the meaning of it was, 
and that it was to make bread of ; for after that I let him 
see me make my bread, and bake it too, and in a little time 
Friday was able to do all the work for me as well as I could 
do it myself. 

I began now to consider that, having two mouths to feed 
instead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, ' 
and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do ; so 

















256 The Life and Adventures o 1 

I marked out a larger piece of land, and began the feno 
in the same manner as before; in which Friday not onl 
worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheei 
fully. And I told him what it was for ; that it was fo: 
corn to make more bread, because he was now with me. 
and that I might have enough for hin} and myself too. He; 
appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know that 
he thought I had much more labor upon me on his account 
than I had for myself ; and that he would work the harder 
for me, if I would tell him what to do. 

This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this 
place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand 
the names of almost everything I had occasion to call for, 
and of every place I had to send him to, and talk a great 
deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to have some 
use for my tongue again, which indeed I had very little I 
occasion for before — that is to say, about speech. Be- 
sides the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satis- j 
faction in the fellow himself. His simple unfeigned honesty 
appeared to me more and more every day, and I began 
really to love the creature; and, on his side, I believe he 
loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love 
anything before. 

I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering 
inclination to his own country again; and having taught 
him English so well that he could answer me almost any 
questions, I asked him whether the nation that he be- 
longed to never conquered in battle ? At which he 
smiled, and said, “Yes, yes; we always fight the better;” 
that is, he meant always get the better in fight ; and so we 
began the following discourse : “ You always fight the 
better,” said I ; “ how came you to be taken prisoner, then, 
Friday?” 

Friday. My nation beat much, for all that. 


Robinson Crusoe 


257 

Master. How beat; if your nation beat them, how come 
Su to be taken ? 

Friday. They more many than my nation in the place 
here me was ; they take one, two, three, and me. My 
! ation over beat them in the yonder place, where me no 
/as ; there my nation take one, two, great thousand. 

Master. But why did not your side recover you from the 
lands of your enemies then ? 

Friday. They run one, two, three, and me, and make go 
in the canoe ; my nation have no canoe that time. 

Master. Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with 
the men they take ; do they carry them away and eat them, 
as these did ? 

Friday. Yes; my nation eat mans too, eat all up. 
Master. Where do they carry them ? 

Friday. Go to other place where they think. 

Master. Do they come hither ? 

Friday. Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else 
place. 

Master. Have you been here with them ? 

Friday. Yes, I been here (points to the northwest side 
of the island, which it seems was their side). 

By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly 
been among the savages who used to come on shore on 
the farther part of the island on the said man-eating occa- 
sions that he was now brought for. And some time after, 
when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being 
the same I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the 
place, and told me he was there once when they eat up 
twenty men, two women, and one child. He could not 
tell twenty in English ; but he numbered them by laying so 
many stones on a row, and pointing to me to tell them over. 

I have told this passage because it introduces what fol- 
lows ; that, after I had had this discourse with him, I asked 


258 


The Life and Adventures of 



him how far it was from our island to the shore, and whether 
the canoes were not often lost ? He told me there was no 
danger, no canoes ever lost ; but that, after a little way out 
to the sea, there was a current, and a wind, always one 
way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. 

This I understood to be no more than the sets of the 
tide, as going out, or coming in. But I afterwards under- 
stood it was occasioned by the great draught and reflux of 
the mighty river Orinoco, in the mouth or the gulf of which 
river, as I found afterwards, our island lay ; and this land 
which I perceived to the west and northwest was the great 
island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the 
river. I asked Friday a thousand questions about the 
country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations 
were near. He told me all he knew with the greatest open- 
ness imaginable. I asked him the names of the several 
nations of his sort of people, but could get no other name 
than Caribs ; from whence I easily understood that these 
were the Caribbees, which our maps place on the part 
of America which reaches from the mouth of the river 
Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told 
me that up a great way beyond the moon, that was, beyond 
the setting of the moon, which must be west from their 
country, there dwelt white bearded men like me, and 
pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before ; 
and that they had killed much mans, — that was his word. 
By all which I understood he meant the Spaniards, whose 
cruelties in America had been spread over the whole 
countries, and were remembered by all the nations from 
father to son. 

I inquired if he could tell me how I might come from 
this island, and get among those white men. He told me, 
“Yes, ye§, I might go in two canoe.” I could not under- 
stand what he meant, or make him describe to me what 


he 

jfou 

: tWO 

1 

ver 

tha 

ymal 

.mis 

' i 

[me, 

fee, 

p 

Rim 

•urn 

'■this 

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old 

! 0r 
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! H( 
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of 

th 

df 


Robinson Crusot 


259 


t he meant by two canoe, till at last, with great difficulty, I 
3 found he meant it must be in a large, great boat, as big as 
t two canoes. 

3 This part of Friday’s discourse began to relish with me 
very well, and from this time I entertained some hopes 
i that, one time or other, I might find an opportunity to 
• make my escape from this place, and that this poor savage 
f might be a means to help me to do it. 

During the long time that Friday has now been with 
1 me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand 
t me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious 
: knowledge in his mind. Particularly, I asked him one 
: time, “ Who made him ? ” The poor creature did not 
i understand me at all, but thought I had asked who was 
his father ? But I took it by another handle, and asked 
1 him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the 
hills and woods ? He told me that it was one old Bena- 
muckee, that lived beyond all. He could describe nothing 
of this great person, but that he was very old ; much 
older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the moon 
or the stars. I asked him then, “ If this old person had 
made all things, why did not all things worship him ? ” 
He looked very grave, and with a perfect look of inno- 
cence said, “ All things said O to him.” I asked him if 
the people who die in his country went away anywhere ? 
He said, “Yes; they all went to Benamuckee.” Then I 
asked him whether these they eat up went thither too ? 
He said, “Yes.” 

From these things I began to instruct him in the knowl- 
edge of the true God. I told him that the great Maker 
of all things lived up there, pointing up towards heaven ; 
that he governs the world by the same power and provi- 
dence by which he had made it ; that he was omnipotent 
— could do everything for us, give everything to us, take 


2 6 o The Cife and Adventures of 

everything from us: and thus, by degrees, I opened his 
eyes. He listened with great attention, and received with 
pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem 
us ; and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and 
his being able to hear us, even into heaven. He told me 
one day that if our God could hear us up beyond the sun, 
he must needs be a greater God than their Benamuckee, 
who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear, till 
they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt, to 
speak to him. I asked him if ever he went thither to speak 
to him ? He said, “ No, they never went that were young 
men ; ” none went thither but the old men, who he called 
their Oowookakee — that is, as I made him explain it to 
me, their religious, or clergy ; and that they went to say 
O (so he called saying prayers), and then came back and 
told them what Benamuckee said. By this I observed 
that there is priestcraft even amongst the most blinded 
ignorant pagans in the world ; and the policy of making a 
secret religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the 
people to the clergy, is ... to be found . . . perhaps 
among all religions in the world, even among the most 
brutish and barbarous savages. 

I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday 
and told him that the pretence of their old men going up 
to the mountains to say O to their god Benamuckee was a 
cheat, and their bringing word from thence what he said 
was much more so ; that if they met with any answer, or 
spoke with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit. 
And then I entered into a long discourse with him about 
the devil — the original of him, his rebellion against God, 
his enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up 
in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of 
God, and as God ; and the many stratagems he made use 
of to delude mankind to their ruin — how he had a secret 


Robinson Crusoe 


261 


access to our passions, and to our affections, to adapt his 
snares so to our inclinations as to cause us even to be our 
own tempters, and to run upon our destruction by our 
own choice. 

I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in 
his mind about the devil as it was about the being of a 
God. Nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to 
him even the necessity of a great first Cause and over- 
ruling governing Power, a secret directing Providence, 
and of the equity and justice of paying homage to him 
that made us, and the like. But there appeared nothing 
of all this in the notion of an evil spirit, of his original, 
his being, his nature, and, above all, of his inclination to 
do evil, and to draw us in to do so too ; and the poor 
creature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question 
merely natural and innocent, that I scarce knew what to 
say to him. I had been talking a great deal to him of the 
power of God, his omnipotence, his dreadful aversion to 
sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity ; 
how, as he had made us all, he could destroy us and all the 
world in a moment; and he listened with great serious- 
ness to me all the while. 

After this I had been telling him how the devil was God’s 
enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and 
skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin 
the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like. “ Well,” 
says Friday; “but you say God is so strong, so great, is 
he not much strong, much might as the devil ? ” — “Yes, 
yes,” says I, “Friday, God is stronger than the devil, God 
is above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to tread 
him down under our feet, and enable us to resist his temp- 
tations, and quench his fiery darts.” — “ But,” says he again, 
“ if God much strong, much might as the devil, why God 
no kill the devil, so make him no more do wicked ? ” 


262 


The Life and Adventures of 


I was strangely surprised at this question ; and, after 
all, though I was now an old man, yet I was but a young 
doctor, and ill enough qualified for a casuist, or a solver 
of difficulties. And at first I could not tell what to say ; 
so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he 
said. But he was too earnest for an answer to forget his 
question ; so that he repeated it in the very same broken 
words as above. By this time I had recovered myself a 
little, and I said, “ God will at last punish him severely ; 
he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the 
bottomless pit to dwell with everlasting fire.” This did 
not satisfy Friday ; but he returns upon me, repeating 
my words, “‘Reserve — at last,’ me no understand. But 
why not kill the devil now, not kill great ago ? ” — “ You 
may as well ask me,” said I, “ why God does not kill you 
and me when we do wicked things here that offend him. 
We are preserved to repent and be pardoned.” He muses 
a while at this. “Well, well,” says he, mighty affection- 
ately, “that well; so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, 
repent, God pardon all.” Here I was run down again by 
him to the last degree ; and it was a testimony to me how 
the mere notions of nature, though they will guide reason- 
able creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a wor- 
ship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the 
consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine revela- 
tion can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of a 
redemption purchased for us, of a Mediator of the new 
covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of God’s 
throne ; — I say, nothing but a revelation from heaven can 
form these in the soul ; and that, therefore, the Gospel of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean the Word of 
God, and the Spirit of God, promised for the guide and 
sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessary in- 
structors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of 
God and the means of salvation. 


Robinson Crusoe 


263 

I therefore diverted the present discourse between me 
and my man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occa- 
sion of going out ; then sending him for something a good 
way off, I seriously prayed to God that he would enable 
me to instruct savingly this poor savage ; assisting, by his 
Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive 
the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling 
him to himself ; and would guide me to speak so to him 
from the Word of God, as his conscience might be con- 
vinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he 
came again to me I entered into a long discourse with him 
upon the subject of the redemption of man by the Saviour 
of the world, and of the doctrine of the gospel preached 
from Heaven ; namely, of repentance towards God and 
faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained to him, 
as well as I could, why our blessed Redeemer took not on 
him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, and 
how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no share in the 
redemption ; that he came only to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel, and the like. 

I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all 
the methods I took for this poor creature’s instruction ; 
and must acknowledge, what I believe all that act upon 
the same principle will find, that, in laying things open to 
him, I really informed and instructed myself in many 
things that either I did not know or had not fully con- 
sidered before, but which occurred naturally to my mind 
upon my searching into them for the information of this 
poor savage. And I had more affection in my inquiry 
after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before ; so 
that whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me 
or no, I had great reason to be thankful that ever he came 
to me. My grief set lighter upon me, my habitation grew 
comfortable to me beyond measure ; and when I reflected 


264 The Life and Adventures of 

that in this solitary life which I had been confined to, I 
had not only been moved myself to look up to Heaven, and 
to seek to the hand that had brought me there, but was 
now to be made an instrument under Providence to save 
the life, and, for aught I know, the soul of a poor savage, 
and bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of the 
Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to 
know whom is life eternal ; I say, when I reflected upon 
all these things, a secret joy ran through every part of my 
soul; and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to 
this place, which I had so often thought the most dreadful 
of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me. 

In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of 
my time ; and the conversation which employed the hours 
between Friday and me was such as made the three years 
which we lived there together perfectly and completely 
happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be 
formed in a sublunary state. The savage was now a good 
Christian — a much better than I, though I have reason 
to hope, and bless God for it, that we were equally peni- 
tent, and comforted, restored penitents ; we had here the 
Word of God to read, and no farther off from his Spirit 
to instruct than if we had been in England. 

I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, to let 
him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what I read ; 
and he, again, by his serious inquiries and questions, made 
me, as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture 
knowledge than I should ever have been by my own pri- 
vate mere reading. Another thing I cannot refrain from 
observing here, also from experience in this retired part 
of my life ; namely, how infinite and inexpressible a bless- 
ing it is that the knowledge of God, and of the doctrine 
of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the 
Word of God, so easy to be received and understood, that 


Robinson Crusoe 


265 

as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable of 
understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on 
to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins and 
laying hold of a Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated 
reformation in practice and obedience to all God’s com- 
mands, and this without any teacher or instructor (I mean 
human), so the same plain instruction sufficiently served 
to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him 
to be such a Christian as I have known few equal to him 
in my life. 

As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention 
which has happened in the world about religion, whether 
niceties in doctrines or schemes of church government, 
they were all perfectly useless to us, as, for aught I can 
yet see, they have been to all the rest in the world. We 
had the sure guide to heaven — namely, the Word of God ; 
and we had, blessed be God, comfortable views of the 
Spirit of God, teaching and instructing us by his Word, 
leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and 
obedient to the instruction of his Word ; and I cannot see 
the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed 
points in religion, which have made such confusions in the 
world, would have been to us if we could have obtained it. 
But I must go on with the historical part of things, and 
take every part in its order. 



266 


The Life and Adventures of 


XV. Crusoe teaches Friday to use firearms 
— Tells him of his country — Friday de- 1 
scribes his people — They make a boat 
fitted with masts and sails — Friday 
learns navigation — The savages come 
to the island again — Crusoe attacks 
and drives them away , killing and 
wounding twenty-one of them — Crusoe 
rescues a Spaniard and Friday finds \ 
his father . 

After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, 
and that he could understand almost all I said to him, and 
speak fluently, though in broken English, to me, I ac- 
quainted him with my own story, or at least so much of 
it as related to my coming into the place, how I had lived 
there, and how long. I let him into the mystery, for such 
it was to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him 
how to shoot. I gave him a knife, which he was wonder- 
fully delighted with ; and I made him a belt, with a frog 
hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in ; and 
in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which 
was not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much 
more useful upon other occasions. 

I described to him the country of Europe, and particu- 
larly England, which I came from ; how we lived, how we 
worshipped God, how we behaved to one another, and how 
we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I gave him 
an account of the wreck which I had been on board of, 
and showed him as near as I could the place where she 
lay ; but she was all beaten in pieces before, and gone. 


Robinson Crusoe 


267 


I showed him the ruins of our boat which we lost when 
we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole 
strength then, but was now fallen almost all to pieces. 
Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood musing a great while, 
and said nothing. I asked him what it was he studied 
upon. At last says he, “ Me see such boat like come to 
place at my nation.” 

I did not understand him a good while ; but at last, when 
I had examined farther into it, I understood by him that 
a boat, such as that had been, came on shore upon the 
country where he lived ; that is, as he explained it, was 
driven thither by stress of weather. I presently imagined 
that some European ship must have been cast away upon 
their coast, and the boat might get loose and drive ashore ; 
but was so dull, that I never once thought of men making 
escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they might 
come ; so I only inquired after a description of the boat. 

Friday described the boat to me well enough ; but 
brought me better to understand him when he added, 
with some warmth, “ We save the white mans from drown.” 
Then I presently asked him if there were any white mans, 
as he called them, in the boat. “Yes,” he said; “the 
boat full of white mans.” I asked him how many. He 
told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked him then what 
became of them. He told me, “They live, they dwell 
at my nation.” 

This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently 
imagined that these might be the men belonging to the 
ship that was cast away in sight of my island, as I now 
call it ; and who, after the ship was struck on the rock, 
and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in 
their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among 
the savages. 

Upon this I inquired of him more critically what was 


268 


The Life and Adventures of 


become of them. He assured me they lived still there; 
that they had been there about four years; that the 
savages let them alone, and gave them victuals to live. 
I asked him how it came to pass they did not kill them 
and eat them. He said, “ No, they make brother with 
them ; ” that is, as I understood him, a truce. And then 
he added, “They eat no mans but when make the war 
fight ; ” that is to say, they never eat any men but such as 
come to fight with them and are taken in battle. 

It was after this some considerable time, that being on 
the top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from 
whence, as I have said, I had in a clear day discovered 
the main, or continent of America, Friday, the weather 
being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the main- 
land, and in a kind of surprise falls a jumping and danc- 
ing, and calls out to me, for I was at some distance from 
him. I asked him what was the matter. “ Oh, joy ! ” says 
he, “oh, glad ! There see my country, there my nation ! ” 

I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared 
in his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance 
discovered a strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be 
in his own country again ; and this observation of mine 
put a great many thoughts into me, which made me at first 
not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before ; 
and I made no doubt but that if Friday could get back 
to his own nation again, he would not only forget all his 
religion, but all his obligation to me ; and would be for- 
ward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, 
and come back perhaps with a hundred or two of them, 
and make a feast upon me, at which he might be as merry 
as he used to be with those of his enemies when they were 
taken in war. 

But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for 
which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my jeal- 


Robinson Crusoe 


269 

ousy increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little 
more circumspect, and not so familiar and kind to him as 


ti 

i 


before; in which I was certainly in the wrong, too, the 
honest grateful creature having no thought about it, but 
what consisted with the best principles, both as a religious 
Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards 
to my full satisfaction. 

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I 
was every day pumping him, to see if he would discover 
any of the new thoughts which I suspected were in him ; 
but I found everything he said was so honest, and so 
innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspi- 
cion ; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at 
last entirely his own again ; nor did he in the least per- 
ceive that I was uneasy, and therefore I could not suspect 
him of deceit. 

One day walking up the same hill, but the weather 
being hazy at sea, so that we could not see the continent, 
I called to him, and said, “ Friday, do not you wish your- 
self in your own country, your own nation ?” — “ Yes,” 
he said ; “I be much O glad to be at my own nation.” 
— “What would you do there?” said I. “Would you turn 
wild again, eat men’s flesh again, and be a savage as you 
were before ? ” He looked full of concern, and shaking 
his head, said, “No, no; Friday tell them to live good, 
tell them to pray God, tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle- 
flesh, milk, no eat man again.” — “Why then,” said I to 
him, “they will kill you.” He looked grave at that, and 
then said, “ No, they no kill me, they willing love learn.” 
He meant by this, they would be willing to learn. He 
added, they learned much of the bearded mans that come 
in the boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to 
them. He smiled at that, and told me he could not swim 
so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him. He 


270 


The Life and Adventures of 


told me he would go if I would go with him. “I go ! 
says I ; “why, they will eat me if I come there.” — “NT 
no,” says he ; “me make they no eat you ; me make ther: 
much love you.” He meant he would tell them how | 
had killed his enemies, and saved his life, and so he woul<; 
make them love me. Then he told me as well as he couhj 
how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearde(j 
men, as he called them, who came on shore there in dis 
tress. 

From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venturd 
over, and see if I could possibly join with these beardecj 
men, who, I made no doubt, were Spaniards or Portu- 
guese ; not doubting but, if I could, we might find some; 
method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, 
and a good company together, better than I could from an 
island forty miles off the shore and alone without help. 
So, after some days, I took Friday to work again, by way 
of discourse, and told him I would give him a boat to go 
back to his own nation ; and accordingly I carried him to 
my frigate, which lay on the other side of the island, and 
having cleared it of water, for I always kept it sunk in 
the water, I brought it out, showed it him, and we both 
went into it. 

I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, 
would make it go almost as swift and fast again as I could. 
So when he was in, I said to him, “Well now, Friday, 
shall we go to your nation ? ” He looked very dull at my 
saying so ; which it seems was because he thought the 
boat too small to go so far. I told him then I had a 
bigger. So the next day I went to the place where the 
first boat lay which I had made, but which I could not 
get into water. He said that was big enough. But then, 
as I had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three 
and twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it, that 


Robinson Crusoe 


271 


!’it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me such a boat 
io would do very well, and would carry “ much enough vittle, 
in drink, bread ” ; that was his way of talking. 

'/] Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my 
ilc design of going over with him to the continent, that I told 
khim we would go and make one as big as that, and he 
ec should go home in it. He answered not one word, but 
^looked very grave and sad. I asked him, “ What was the 
matter with him ? ” He asked me again thus, “ Why you 
ir e angry mad with Friday, what me done?” I asked him 
edwhat he meant; I told him I was not angry with him at 
:u-all. “No angry ! no angry ! ” says he, repeating the words 
ne several times; “why send Friday home away to my 
^nation ? ” — “ Why,” says I, “ Friday, did you not say you 
an wished you were there ? ” — “ Yes, yes,” says he ; “wish be 
p, both there — no wish Friday there, no master there.” In 
ay a word, he would not think of going there without me. 
r(j '“ I go there, Friday!” says I; “what shall I do there?” 
to He turned very quick upon me at this. “You do great 
id deal much good,” says he ; “ you teach wild mans be good 
n sober tame man ; you tell them know God, pray God, and 
j, live new life.” — “Alas! Friday,” says I, “thou knowest 
not what thou sayest ; I am but an ignorant man myself.” 
— “Yes, yes,” says he ; “ you teachee me good, you teachee 
them good.” — “No, no, Friday,” says I; “you shall go 
without me ; leave me here to live by myself, as I did 
f before.” He looked confused again at that word, and 
; running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he 
takes it up hastily, and gives it me. “What must I do 
with this?” says I to him. “You take kill Friday,” says 
he. “ What must I kill you for ? ” said I again. He 
returns very quick, “ What you send Friday away for ? — 
take kill Friday, no send Friday away.” This he spoke 
<50 earnestly, that I saw tears stand in his eyes. In a 


2J2 


The Life and Adventures of 


word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him 
to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then, 
and often after, that I would never send him away from 
me, if he was willing to stay with me. 

Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled 
affection to me, and that nothing should part him from 
me, so I found all the foundation of his desire to go to his 
own country was laid in his ardent affection to the people 
and his hopes of my doing them good ; a thing which, as 
I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought 
or intention or desire of undertaking it. But still I found 
a strong inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, 
founded on the supposition gathered from the discourse — 
namely, that there were seventeen bearded men there ; and 
therefore, without any more delay, I went to work with 
Friday to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make a 
large periagua or canoe to undertake the voyage. There 
were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, 
not of periaguas and canoes, but even of good large ves- 
sels. But the main thing I looked at, was to get one so 
near the water that we might launch it when it was made, 
to avoid the mistake I committed at first. 

At last Friday pitched upon a tree, for I found he knew 
much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it ; 
nor can I tell, to this day, what wood to call the tree we 
cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call 
fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was 
much of the same color and smell. Friday was for burn- 
ing the hollow or cavity of this tree out to make it for 
a boat ; but I showed him how rather to cut it out with 
tools ; which, after I had showed him how to use, he did 
very handily ; and in about a month’s hard labor, we fin- 
ished it, and made it very handsome, especially when with 
our axes, which I showed him how to handle, we cut and 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 73 


i hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat. After 
, this, however, it cost us near a fortnight’s time to get her 
1 along, as it were, inch by inch upon great rollers into the 
water. But when she was in, she would have carried 
| twenty men with great ease. 

I When she was in the water, and though she was so big, 

; it amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my 
; man Friday would manage her, turn her, and paddle her 
along ; so I asked him if he would, and if we might ven- 
ture over in her. “Yes,” he said; “he venture over in 
her very well, though great blow wind.” However, I had 
a farther design that he knew nothing of ; and that was, 
to make a mast and sail, and to fit her with an anchor and 
cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get ; so I 
pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found 
near the place, and which there was great plenty of in the 
island ; and I set Friday to work to cut it down, and gave 
him directions how to shape and order it. But as to the 
sail, that was my particular care. I knew I had old sails, 
or rather pieces of old sails enough ; but as I had had 
, them now twenty-six years by me, and had not been very 
careful to preserve them, not imagining that I should ever 
have this kind of use for them, I did not doubt but they 
were all rotten ; and, indeed, most of them were so. How- 
ever, I found two pieces which appeared pretty good, and 
with these I went to work, and with a great deal of pains, 
and awkward tedious stitching (you may be sure) for want 
of needles, I at length made a three-cornered ugly thing, 

: like what we call in England a shoulder-of-mutton-sail, to 
go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the 
top, such as usually our ships’ long-boats sail with ; and 
such as I best knew how to manage, because it was such 
a one as I had to the boat in which I made my escape 
from Barbary, as related in the first part of my story. 


274 The Life and Adventures of 

I was near two months performing this last work — 
namely, rigging and fitting my mast and sails ; for I fin- 
ished them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail 
or fore-sail to it, to assist if we should turn to windward. 
And, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern 
of her, to steer with ; and though I was but a bungling 
shipwright, yet as I knew the usefulness, and even neces- 
sity of such a thing, I applied myself with so much pains 
to do it, that at last I brought it to pass, though consider- 
ing the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I 
think it cost me almost as much labor as making the 
boat. 

After all this was done, too, I had my man Friday to 
teach as to what belonged to the navigation of my boat ; 
for though he knew very well how to paddle a canoe, he 
knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder, and 
was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to 
and again in the sea by the rudder ; and how the sail jibed, 
and filled this way or that way, as the course we sailed 
changed ; — I say, when he saw this he stood like one 
astonished and amazed. However, with a little use, I 
made all these things familiar to him ; and he became an 
expert sailor, except that, as to the compass, I could make 
him understand very little of that. On the other hand, as 
there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never 
any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for a 
compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen by night 
and the shore by day, except in the rainy seasons, and 
then nobody cared to stir abroad, either by land or sea. 

I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of 
my captivity in this place ; though the three last years 
that I had this creature with me ought rather to be left 
out of the account, my habitation being quite of another 
kind than in all the rest of the time. I kept the anniver- 




Robinson Crusbe 


275 


| sary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to 
jj God for his mercies as at first. And if I had such cause 
{ of acknowledgment at first, I had much more so now, hav- 
n ing such additional testimonies of the care of Providence 
g over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually 
j. and speedily delivered ; for I had an invincible impression 
s upon my thoughts that my deliverance was at hand, and 
•. that I should not be another year in this place. However, 
I I went on with my husbandry, digging, planting, fencing, 
e as usual ; I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every 
necessary thing, as before. 

0 The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when 
• I kept more within doors than at other times. So I had 
e stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, bringing her 
j up into the creek where, as I said, in the beginning I 
) landed my rafts from the ship ; and hauling her up to the 

shore at high-water mark, I made my man Friday dig a 
j little dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep 

1 enough to give her water enough to float in : and then, 
r when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across the 
, end of it, to keep the water out ; and so she lay dry, as to 
; the tide from the sea ; and to keep the rain off, we laid a 
; great many boughs of trees so thick, that she was as well 

thatched as a house ; and thus we waited for the months 
of November and December, in which I designed to make 
my adventure. 

When the settled season began to come in, as the 
| thought of my design returned with the fair weather, I 
was preparing daily for the voyage. And the first thing 
I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being 
the stores for our voyage ; and intended, in a week or a 
fortnight’s time, to open the dock and launch out our boat. 
I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, 
i when I called to Friday, and bid him go to the seashore 


27 6 


The Life and Adventures of 


and see if he could find a turtle or tortoise — a thing 
which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the ; 
eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone, 
when he came running back, and flew over my outer wall 
or fence like one that felt not the ground or the steps he 
set his feet on ; and before I had time to speak to him, he 
cries out to me, “O master! O master! — O sorrow! — 

0 bad ! ” — “ What’s the matter, Friday ? ” says I. “O — 
yonder — there,” says he ; “ one, two, three canoe ! — one, 
two, three ! ” By his way of speaking I concluded there 
were six ; but on inquiry, I found it was but three. “Well, 
Friday,” says I, “ do not be frighted.” So I heartened 
him up as well as I could. However, I saw the poor fel- 
low was most terribly scared ; for nothing ran in his head 
but that they were come to look for him, and would cut 
him in pieces and eat him ; and the poor fellow trembled I 
so, that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted 
him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much dan- 
ger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him : 
“But,” says I, “Friday, we must resolve to fight them. 
Can you fight, Friday?” — “Me shoot,” says he; “but! 
there come many great number.” — “ No matter for that,” | 
said I again ; “ our guns will fright them that we do not 
kill ; ” so I asked him, “ Whether, if I resolved to defend 
him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as 

1 bid him ? ” He said, “ Me die, when you bid die, mas- 
ter.” So I went and fetched a good dram of rum and 
gave him ; for I had been so good a husband of my rum 
that I had a great deal left. When he had drank it, I 
made him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always 
carried, and load them with large swan-shot, as big as 
small pistol bullets ; then I took four muskets, and loaded 
them with two slugs and five small bullets each ; and my 
two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each ; I hung 


Robinson Crusoe 


277 

my great sword as usual naked by my side, and gave Fri- 
day his hatchet. 

When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspec- 
tive-glass, and went up to the side of the hill to see what 
I could discover. And I found quickly, by my glass, that 
there were one-and-twenty savages, three prisoners, and 
three canoes ; and that their whole business seemed to be 
the triumphal banquet upon these three human bodies (a 
barbarous feast indeed), but nothing more than as I had 
observed was usual with them. 

I observed, also, that they were landed, not where they 
had done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my 
creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood 
came close almost down to the sea. This, with the abhor- 
rence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, 
filled me with such indignation, that I came down again to 
Friday and told him I was resolved to go down to them 
and kill them all ; and asked him if he would stand by me ? 
He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being a 
little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very 
cheerful, and told me, as before, “ he would die, when I 
bid die.” 

In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms 
which I had charged, as before, between us. I gave Fri- 
day one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon 
his shoulder; and I took one pistol and the other three 
myself ; and in this posture we marched out. I took a 
small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large 
bag with more powder and bullet. And as to orders, I 
charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, or 
shoot, or do anything till I bid him ; and in the meantime 
not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass 
to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over the 
creek as to get into the wood ; so that I might come within 


278 


The Life and Adventures of 


shot of them before I should be discovered, which I hac 
seen by my glass it was easy to do. 

While I was making this march, my former thought; 
returning, I began to abate my resolution. I do not mear 
that I entertained any fear of their number ; for as the) 
were naked, unarmed wretches, it is certain I was superioi 
to them — nay, though I had been alone ; but it occurrec 
to my thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less whal 
necessity, I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, tc 
attack people who had neither done nor intended me any 
wrong — who as to me were innocent ; and whose barbar-; 
ous customs were their own disaster, being in them a 
token, indeed, of God’s having left them, with the other 
nations of that part of the world, to such stupidity and to; 
such inhuman courses, but did not call me to take upon 
me to be a judge of their actions, much less an execu- 
tioner of his justice: that whenever he thought fit, he 
would take the cause into his own hands, and by national 
vengeance punish them as a people for national crimes ; 
but that, in the meantime, it was none of my business : 
that it was true Friday might justify it, because he was a 
declared enemy, and in a state of war with those very par- 
ticular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them ; 
but I could not say the same with respect to me. These 
things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts, all the 
way as I went, that I resolved I would only go and place 
myself near them, that I might observe their barbarous 
feast, and that I would act then as God should direct; 
but that unless something offered that was more a call to 
me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them. 

With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all 
possible wariness and silence, Friday following close at 
my heels, I marched till I came to the skirt of the wood, 
on the side which was next to them ; only that one corner 


of 

sc 

F 

ar 

w 

m 

tli 

th 

a 

w 

W: 

W 

V 

w 

b] 

sc 


h; 


al 

w 

C( 

It 

w 


Ci 

0 


t 

1 

t 


Robinson Crusoe 


279 


of the wood lay between me and them. Here I called 
1 softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was 
just at the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree 
ts * and bring me word if he could see there plainly what they 
In were doing. He did so, and came immediately back to 
^ me and told me they might be plainly viewed there ; that 
°[ they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of 
^ their prisoners ; and that another lay bound upon the sand, 
a little from them, which he said they would kill next, and 
to which fired all the very soul within me. He told me it 
]] i was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men 
ir ' who he had told me of, that came to their country in the 
a boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming the 
2 - white bearded man, and going to the tree I saw plainly 
to by my glass a white man who lay upon the beach of the 
311 sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, or 
u ' things like rushes ; and that he was a European, and 
ie had clothes on. 

^ There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, 
3 I about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I 
’ was, which, by going a little way about, I saw I might 
a come at undiscovered, and that then I should be within 
r ' half shot of them : so I withheld my passion, though I 
! was, indeed, enraged to the highest degree, and going 
e back about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which 
e held all the way till I came to the other tree ; and then I 
e came to a little rising ground, which gave me a full view 
s of them, at the distance of about eighty yards. 

I had now not a moment to lose ; for nineteen of the 
] dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled 
together, and had just sent the other two to butcher the 
• i poor Christian, and bring him perhaps limb by limb to 
their fire, and they were stooped down to untie the bands 
: at his feet. I turned to Friday. “ Now, Friday,” said I, 




280 The Life and Adventures of 

“do as I bid thee.” Friday said he would. “Then, Fri j c 
day, says I, “ do exactly as you see me do — fail in nothing.’ f 
So I set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piec( 1) 
upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and witf * 
the other musket I took my aim at the savages, bidding a 
him do the like. Then asking him if he was ready, hej ? 
said, “Yes.” — “Then fire at them,” said I ; and the same ji 
moment I fired also. I l o 

jj 

Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the h 
side that he shot he killed two of them, and wounded three n 
more; and on my side, I killed one and wounded tv 
They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful consternatio 1 f ' 
and all of them who were not hurt jumped up upon the 1 T 
feet, but did not im^- fiately know which way to run f > * 
which way to look ior they knew not from whence their bn 
destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me ij s* 
that, as I had bid him, he might observe what I did. S A 
as soon as the first shot was made, I threw down the piece I 
and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did the like; he l 
sees me cock and present; he did the same again. “ Are 1 3.1 
you ready, Friday?” said I. “Yes,” says he. “ Let fly i 
then,” says I, “ in the name of God ! ” and with that | ci 
fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Fri"! hi 
day. And as our pieces were now loaded with what I called ^ 
swan-shot, or small pistol bullets, we found only two drop ; 
but so many were wounded, that they ran about yellin| b ( 
and screaming, like mad creatures, all bloody and miserabl r e 
wounded, most of them ; whereof three more fell quickly 
after, though not quite dead. 

“ Now, Friday,” says I, laying down the discharged 
pieces, and taking up the musket which was yet loaded, 

“ follow me,” says I ; which he did, with a great deal of 
courage. Upon which I rushed out of the wood and showed 
myself, and Friday close at my foot. As soon as I pet ; 


Robinson Crusoe 


281 


i ceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and bade 
Friday do so too ; and running as fast as I could, — which, 
e by the way, was not very fast, being laden with arms as I 
h was, — I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, 
§ as I said, lying upon the beach or shore, between the place 
e where they sat and the sea. The two butchers, who were 
c just going to work with him, had left him at the surprise 
1 of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the sea-side 
t ? and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest 
f made the same way. I turned to Friday, and bid him step 
^ urward and fire at them. He understood me immediately, 
* nd running about forty yards to be near them, he shot at 
t : hem, and I thought he had killed them all ; for I saw them 
r v >11 fall of a heap into the boat ; tk v ^h I saw two of them 
! bup again quickly. However, he kn 1 two of them, and 
1 s wounded the third; so that he lay down in the bottom of 
i the boat, as if he had been dead. 

( 1 While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my 
( knife and cut the flags that bound the poor victim, and 
e a loosing his hands and feet, I lifted him up, and asked him 
■' "• in the Portuguese tongue, “What he was ? ” He answered 
) cin Latin, “ Christianus ; ” but was so weak and faint, that he 
: hcould scarce stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my 
! ^pocket and gave it him, making signs that he should drink, 
ibwhich he did; and I gave him a piece of bread, which he 
beat. Then I asked him, “What countryman he was?” 
cAnd he said “ Espagniole ; ” and being a little recovered, 
let me know, by all the signs he could possibly make, how 
much he was in my debt for his deliverance. “ Seignior,” 
I said I, with as much Spanish as I could make up, “ we will 
talk afterwards, but we must fight now. If you have any 
strength left, take this pistol and sword and lay about you.” 

; • He took them very thankfully ; and no sooner had he the 
; arms in his hands, but, as if they had put new vigor into 


282 


The Life and Adventures of 


him, he flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut ' 
two of them in pieces in an instant. For the truth is, as 1 
the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures < 
were so much frighted with the noise of our pieces, that 
they fell down for mere amazement and fear ; and had no 
more power to attempt their own escape than their flesh 
had to resist our shot. And that was the case of those five 
that Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell 
with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the 
fright. 

I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing, being j 
willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the 
Spaniard my pistol and sword. So I called to Friday, and 
bade him run up to the tree from whence we first fired, and 
fetch the arms which lay there that had been discharged — 
which he did with great swiftness ; and then giving him my 
musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and 
bade them come to me when they wanted. While I was 
loading these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement 
between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made 
at him with one of their great wooden swords, — the same 
weapon that was to have killed him before, if I had not 
prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and as brave 
as could be imagined, though weak, had fought this Indian 
a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his 
head ; but the savage, being a stout lusty fellow, closing in 
with him, had thrown him down (being faint), and was 
wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard, 
though undermost, wisely quitting the sword, drew the 
pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body 
and killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running to 
help him, could come near him. 

Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying 
wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet ; and 


Robinson Crusoe 


283 


with that he despatched those three who, as I said before, 
were wounded at first and fallen, and all the rest he could 
come up with. And the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, 
I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pur- 
sued two of the savages, and wounded them both : but as 
he was not able to run, they both got from him into the 
wood, where Friday pursued them and killed one of them ; 
but the other was too nimble for him, and though he was 
wounded, yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam 
with all his might off to those two who were left in the 
canoe ; which three in the canoe, with one wounded, who 
we know not whether he died or no, were all that escaped 
our hands of one-and-twenty. The account of the rest is 
as follows : — 

3 Killed at our first shot from the tree. 

2 Killed at the next shot. 

2 Killed by Friday in the boat. 

2 Killed by ditto, of those at first wounded. 

1 Killed by ditto, in the wood. 

3 Killed by the Spaniard. 

4 Killed, being found dropped here and there of their wounds, 

or killed by Friday in his chase of them. 

4 Escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead. 

21 In all. 


Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of 
gun-shot ; and though Friday made two or three shots at 
them, I did not find that he hit any of them. Friday would 
fain have had me take one of their canoes, and pursue 
them ; and indeed I was very anxious about their escape, 
lest, carrying the news home to their people, they should 
come back, perhaps, with two or three hundred of their 
canoes, and devour us by mere multitude. So I consented 
to pursue them by sea, and running to one of their canoes, 


284 


The Life and Adventures of 


I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but when I was 
in the canoe I was surprised to find another poor creature 
lie there alive, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, 
for the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing 
what the matter was ; for he had not been able to look up 
over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard, neck and 
heels, and had been tied so long, that he had really but 
little life in him. 

I immediately cut the twisted flags, or rushes, which they 
had bound him with, and would have helped him up ; but 
he could not stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, 
believing, it seems still, that he was only unbound in order 
to be killed. 

When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him, and 
tell him of his deliverance, and pulling out my bottle, made 
him give the poor wretch a dram; which, with the news of 
his being delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat. 
But when Friday came to hear him speak, and look in his 
face, it would have moved any one to tears to have seen 
how Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, 
laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung, then cried 
again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head, and 
then sung and jumped about like a distracted creature. It 
was a good while before I could make him speak to me, or 
tell me what was the matter ; but when he came a little to 
himself, he told me that it was his father ! 

It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see 
what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor 
savage at the sight of his father, and of his being delivered 
from death ; nor indeed can I describe half the extravagances 
of his affection after this — for he went into the boat and 
out of the boat a great many times. When he went in to 
him, he would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold 
his father’s head close to his bosom half an hour together, 


Robinson Crusoe 


285 


to nourish it ; then he took his arms and ankles, which were 
numbed and stiff with the binding, and chafed and rubbed 
them with his hands ; and I perceiving what the case was, 
gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with, 
which did them a great deal of good. 

This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with 
the other savages, who were now gotten almost out of sight. 
And it was happy for us that we did not ; for it blew so 
hard within two hours after, and before they could be gotten 
a quarter of their way, and continued blowing so hard all 
night, and that from the northwest, which was against them, 
that I could not suppose their boat could live, or that they 
ever reached to their own coast. 

But to return to Friday, he was so busy about his father 
that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some 
time. But after I thought he could leave him a little, I 
called him to me, and he came jumping and laughing and 
pleased to the highest extreme. Then I asked him if he 
had given his father any bread ? He shook his head and 
said, “None. Ugly dog eat all up self.” So I gave him 
a cake of bread out of a little pouch I carried on purpose ; 
I also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not taste 
it, but carried it to his father. I had in my pocket also two 
or three bunches of my raisins, so I gave him a handful of 
them for his father. He had no sooner given his father 
these raisins but I saw him come out of the boat and run 
away as if he had been bewitched, he ran at such a rate — 
for he was the swiftest fellow of his foot that ever I saw ; 
I say, he run at such a rate that he was out of sight, as it 
were, in an instant ; and though I called, and hallooed too, 
after him, it was all one, away he went, and in a quarter of 
an hour I saw him come back again, though not so fast as 
he went; and as he came nearer, I found his pace was 
slacker because he had something in his hand. 


286 


The Life and Adventures of 


When he came up to me, I found he had been quite home 
for an earthen jug or pot to bring his father some fresh 
water, and that he had got two more cakes or loaves of 
bread. The bread he gave me, but the water he carried to 
his father. However, as I was very thirsty too, I took a | 
little sup of it. The water revived his father more than 
all the rum or spirits I had given him; for he was just 
fainting with thirst. 

When his father had drank, I called to him to know if 
there was any water left? He said “Yes;” and I bade | 
him give it to the poor Spaniard, who was in as much want 
of it as his father; and I sent one of the cakes that Friday 
brought to the Spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, 
and was reposing himself upon a green place under the 
shade of a tree, and whose limbs were also very stiff and 
very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied 
with. When I saw that upon Friday’s coming to him with 
the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread and 
began to eat, I went to him and gave him a handful of 
raisins. He looked up in my face with all the tokens of 
gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any coun- 
tenance ; but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted 
himself in the fight, that he could not stand up upon his 
feet. He tried to do it two or three times, but was really 
not able, his ankles were so swelled and so painful to him ; 
so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to rub his ankles 
and bathe them with rum, as he had done his father’s. 

I observed the poor affectionate creature every two min- 
utes, or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turned his 
head about, to see if his father was in the same place and 
posture as he left him sitting ; and at last he found he was 
not to be seen ; at which he started up, and without speak- 
ing a word, flew with that swiftness to him, that one could 
scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went. 


Robinson Crusoe 


287 


But when he came, he only found he had laid himself down 
to ease his limbs; so Friday came back to me presently, 
and I then spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help him 
up if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he should 
carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him. 
But Friday, a lusty strong fellow, took the Spaniard quite 
up upon his back, and carried him away to the boat, and 
set him down softly upon the side or gunwale of the canoe, 
with his feet in the inside of it, and then lifted him quite 
in, and set him close to his father, and presently stepping 
out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it along the 
shore faster than I could walk, though the wind blew pretty 
hard too. So he brought them both safe into our creek ; 
and leaving him in the boat, runs away to fetch the other 
i canoe. And as he passed me I spoke to him, and asked 
him whither he went ? He told me, “ Go fetch more boat.” 
So away he went like the wind, for sure never man or horse 
run like him ; and he had the other canoe in the creek 
almost as soon as I got to it by land. So he wafted me 
over, and then went to help our new guests out of the 
boat, which he did. But they were neither of them able 
to walk, so that poor Friday knew not what to do. 

To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and call- 
ing to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he 
came to me, I soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay 
them on, and Friday and I carried them up both together 
upon it between us. But when we got them to the out- 
side of our wall or fortification, we were at a worse loss 
than before, for it was impossible to get them over ; and 
I was resolved not to break it down. So I set to work 
again ; and Friday and I, in about two hours’ time, made 
a very handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above 
that with boughs of trees, being in the space without our 
outward fence, and between that and the grove of young 



288 The Life and Adventures of 

wood which I had planted. And here we made them two 
beds of such thing's as I had ; namely, of good rice straw, 
with blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover 
them on each bed. 


Tueif by Iijclj upoVj gpea.'t'rollery ” 


Robinson Crusoe 


289 


'o 




1 


X VI. Crusoe's new subjects — They bury 
the dead savages — Build a new boat 
— The Spaniard and Friday's father 
sail to the mainland to rescue some 
shipwrecked Europeans — Crusoe sur- 
prised by the landing of a boatload of 
mutinous sailors — He releases three 
prisoners — Attacks and defeats the 
mutineer's. 

My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very 
rich in subjects. And it was a merry reflection which I 
| frequently made, how like a king I looked. First of all, 
i the whole country was my own mere property ; so that I 
had an undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my peo- 
ple were perfectly subjected; I was absolute lord and law- 
giver ; they all owed their lives to me, and were ready to 
lay down their lives, if there had been occasion of it, for 
me. It was remarkable, too, we had but three subjects, 
and they were of three different religions. My man Fri- 
day was a Protestant, his father was a Pagan and a canni- 
bal, and the Spaniard was a Papist. 

However, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my 
dominions. But this is by the way. 

As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued prison- 
ers, and given them shelter and a place to rest them upon, 

I I began to think of making some provision for them. 
And the first thing I did, I ordered Friday to take a year- 
ling goat — betwixt a kid and a goat — out of my partic- 
ular flock, to be killed, when I cut off the hinder quarter, 


u 


290 


The Life and Adventures of 

and chopping it into small pieces, I set Friday to work to 
boiling and stewing, and made them a very good dish, I 
assure you, of flesh and broth, having put some barley and 
rice also into the broth ; and as I cooked it without doors, 
for I made no fire within my inner wall, so I carried it all 
into the new tent ; and having set a table there for them, 
I sat down and eat my own dinner also with them, and, as 
well as I could, cheered them and encouraged them ; Fri- 
day being my interpreter, especially to his father, and 
indeed to the Spaniard too, for the Spaniard spoke the 
language of the savages pretty well. 

After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday 
to take one of the canoes, and go and fetch our muskets 
and other firearms, which for want of time we had left 
upon the place of battle : and the next day I ordered him 
to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages, which lay 
open to the sun and would presently be offensive ; and I 
also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their bar- 
barous feast, which I knew were pretty much, and which 
I could not think of doing myself ; nay, I could not bear 
to see them if I went that way. All which he punctually 
performed, and defaced the very appearance of the savages 
being there ; so that, when I went again, I could scarce 
know where it was, otherwise than by the corner of the 
wood pointing to the place. 

I then began to enter into a little conversation with my 
two new subjects. And first I set Friday to inquire of 
his father what he thought of the escape of the savages in 
that canoe, and whether we might expect a return of them 
with a power too great for us to resist. His first opinion 
was, that the savages in the boat never could live out the 
storm which blew that night they went off, but must of 
necessity be drowned or driven south to those other shores 
where they were as sure to be devoured as they were to 


Robinson Crusoe 


291 


0 be drowned if they were cast away. But as to what they 
* would do if they came safe on shore, he said he knew not ; 

^ but it w r as his opinion that they were so dreadfully frighted 

with the manner of their being attacked — the noise and 
the fire — that he believed they would tell their people 
they were all killed by thunder and lightning, not by the 
; s hand of man; and that the two which appeared — namely, 

' Friday and me — were two heavenly spirits or furies come 
^ down to destroy them, and not men with weapons. This 
e he said he knew, because he heard them all cry out so in 
their language to one another ; for it was impossible to 
'I them to conceive that a man could dart fire and speak 
s - thunder, and kill at a distance without lifting up the hand, 

1 as was done now. And this old savage was in the right ; 

11 for, as I understood since by other hands, the savages 
! never attempted to go over to the island afterwards ; they 
1 were so terrified with the accounts given by those four 
' ; men (for it seems they did escape the sea) that they be- 
1 lieved whoever went to that enchanted island would be 

destroyed with fire from the gods ! 

This, however, I knew not, and therefore was under con- 
! tinual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always 
upon my guard, me and all my army ; for as we were now 
four of us, I would have ventured upon a hundred of them 
fairly in the open field at any time. 

In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the 
fear of their coming wore off, and I began to take my 
former thoughts of a voyage to the main into considera- 
i tion, being likewise assured by Friday’s father that I might 
depend upon good usage from their nation on his account, 
if I would go. 

But my thoughts were a little suspended when I had a 
serious discourse with the Spaniard, and when I understood 
that there were sixteen more of his countrymen and Portu- 


292 The Life and Adventures of 

guese, who, having been cast away and made their escape tto 
to that side, lived there at peace indeed with the savages, ' ^ 
but were very sore put to it for necessaries, and indeed for L 
life. I asked him all the particulars of their voyage, and u 
found they were a Spanish ship bound from the Rio de la h' 1 
Plata to the Havannah, being directed to leave their load- sa 
ing there, which was chiefly hides and silver, and to bring ck 
back what European goods they could meet with there ; ! I 
that they had five Portuguese seamen on board, who they he 
took out of another wreck ; that five of their own men were ; en 
drowned when the first ship was lost, and that these escaped w; 
through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived almost | th 
starved on the Cannibal coast, where they expected to have in 
been devoured every moment. ! P ( 

He told me they had some arms with them, but they were | m 
perfectly useless, for that they had neither powder nor ball, 
the washing of the sea having spoiled all their powder but n 
a little, which they used at their first landing to provide s 
themselves some food. 1 1 

I asked him what he thought would become of them t 
there, and if they had formed no design of making any t 
escape? He said they had many consultations about it, i 
but that having neither vessel nor tools to build one, nor 1 
provisions of any kind, their counsels always ended in 1 
tears and despair. 

I asked him how he thought they would receive a pro- 
posal from me which might tend towards an escape ? and 
whether, if they were all here, it might not be done ? I 
told him with freedom I feared mostly their treachery and 
ill usage of me if I put my life in their hands ; for that 
gratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature of man; 
nor did men always square their dealings by the obliga- 
tions they had received, so much as they did by the advan- 
tages they expected. I told him it would be very hard 


Robinson Crusoe 


2 93 


e that I should be the instrument of their deliverance and 
i, that they should afterwards make me their prisoner in 
r New Spain, where an Englishman was certain to be made 
1 a sacrifice, what necessity or what accident soever brought 
i him thither ; and that I had rather be delivered up to the 
• savages and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless 
l claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition. 

; I added, that otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all 
r here, we might with so many hands build a bark large 
a enough to carry us all away, either to the Brazils south- 
i ward, or to the islands or Spanish coast northward; but 
t that if in requital they should, when I had put weapons 
;; into their hands, carry me by force among their own 
people, I might be ill used for my kindness to them, and 
: make my case worse than it was before. 

He answered, with a great deal of candor and inge- 
nuity, that their condition was so miserable, and they were 
so sensible of it, that he believed they would abhor the 
I thought of using any man unkindly that should contribute 
to their deliverance ; and that if I pleased, he would go to 
them with the old man, and discourse with them about it, 
and return again, and bring me their answer : that he 
would make conditions with them upon their solemn oath, 
that they should be absolutely under my leading as their 
commander and captain ; and that they should swear upon 
the holy sacraments and the gospel to be true to me, and 
go to such Christian country as that I should agree to, 
and no other ; and to be directed wholly and absolutely by 
my orders, till they were landed safely in such country as 
I intended; and that he would bring a contract from 
them under their hands for that purpose. 

Then he told me he would first swear to me himself, 
that he would never stir from me as long as he lived till 
I gave him orders ; and that he would take my side to the 


294 The Life and Adventures of 

last drop of his blood if there should happen the least 
breach of faith among his countrymen. 

He told me they were all of them very civil, honest men, 
and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, hav- 
ing neither weapons nor clothes nor any food, but at the 
mercy and discretion of the savages ; out of all hopes of 
ever returning to their own country ; and that he was 
sure, if I would undertake their relief, they would live and 
die by me. 

Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve 
them if possible, and to send the old savage and the 
Spaniard over to them to treat ; but when we had gotten 
all things in a readiness to go, the Spaniard himself started 
an objection, which had so much prudence in it on one 
hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I 
could not but be very well satisfied in it ; and by his advice 
put off the deliverance of his comrades for at least half a 
year. The case was thus : — 

He had been with us now about a month, during which 
time I had let him see in what manner I had provided, 
with the assistance of Providence, for my support; and 
he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice I had laid 
up, which, as it was more than sufficient for myself, so it 
was not sufficient, at least without good husbandry, for 
my family, now it was increased to number four. But 
much less would it be sufficient if his countrymen, who 
were, as he said, fourteen still alive, should come over. 
And least of all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, 
if we should build one, for a voyage to any of the Christian 
colonies of America. So he told me he thought it would 
be more advisable to let him and the two other dig and 
cultivate some more land, as much as I could spare seed 
to sow ; and that we should wait another harvest, that we 
might have a supply of corn for his countrymen when 


Robinson Crusoe 


295 

3 :hey should come ; for want might be a temptation to them 
;o disagree, or not to think themselves delivered otherwise 
1 :han out of the difficulty into another. “ You know,” says 
• le, “the children of Israel, though they rejoiced at first 
e [or their being delivered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even 
i against God himself that delivered them, when they came 
[ s to want bread in the wilderness.” 

d His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, 
that I could not but be very well pleased with his pro- 
e posal, as well as I was satisfied with his fidelity. So we 
fell to digging, all four of us, as well as the wooden tools 
Qj we were furnished with permitted ; and in about a month’s 
d; time, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had gotten 
e as much land cured and trimmed up as we sowed twenty- 
I two bushels of barley on and sixteen jars of rice — which 
e was, in short, all the seed we had to spare : nor, indeed, 
a did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our own food 
for the six months that we had to expect our crop ; that is 
1 to say reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for 
, sowing, for it is not to be supposed it is six months in the 
1 ground in that country. 

I Having now society enough, and our number being 
sufficient to put us out of fear of the savages if they had 
come, unless their number had been very great, we went 
freely all over the island wherever we found occasion ; 
and as here we had our escape or deliverance upon our 
thoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to have the 
means of it out of mine. To this purpose I marked out 
several trees which I thought fit for our work, and I set 
Friday and his father to cutting them down ; and then I 
caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted my thought on 
that affair, to oversee and direct their work. I showed 
them with what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large 
tree into single planks, and I caused them to do the like, 


The Life and Adventures of 


296 

till they had made about a dozen large planks of good oak, 
near two foot broad, thirty-five foot long, and from two 
inches to four inches thick. What prodigious labor it J 
took up, any one may imagine. 

At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock n 
of tame goats as much as I could, and to this purpose I 1! 
made Friday and the Spaniard go out one day, and myself 1 
with Friday the next day; for we took our turns : and by s 
this means we got above twenty young kids to breed up " 
with the rest ; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved 
the kids, and added them to our flock. But above all, the j 
season for curing the grapes coming on, I caused such a 
prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that I s 
believe had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of the 1 
sun are cured, we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels. 1 
And these with our bread was a great part of our food ; 
and very good living too, I assure you, for it is an exceed- 1 
ing nourishing food. 

It was now harvest, and our crop in good order. It was 
not the most plentiful increase I had seen in the island, 
but however it was enough to answer our end ; for from 
our twenty-two bushels of barley we brought in and thrashed 1 
out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like in 
proportion of the rice ; which was store enough for our 
food to the next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards 
had been on shore with me ; or if we had been ready for a 
voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our ship 
to have carried us to any part of the world — that is to 
say, of America. 

When we had thus housed and secured our magazine of 
corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-work, namely, 
great baskets in which we kept it ; and the Spaniard was 
very handy and dexterous at this part, and often blamed 
me that I did not make some things for defence of this 
kind of work ; but I saw no need of it. 


Robinson Crusoe 


297 


[ And now having a full supply of food for all the guests 

0 I expected, I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the 
jj main to see what he could do with those he had left 

behind him there. I gave him a strict charge in writing 
k not to bring any man with him who would not first swear 
j in the presence of himself and of the old savage, that he 
][ would no way injure, fight with, or attack the person he 
,y should find in the island, who was so kind to send for them 
p in order to their deliverance ; but that they would stand 
1( j by and defend him against all such attempts, and wher- 
ie ever they went would be entirely under and subjected to 
a his commands ; and that this should be put in writing, and 
^ signed with their hands. How we were to have this done, 
e when I knew they had neither pen or ink — that indeed 
, was a question which we never asked. 

Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the old sav- 
j age, the father of Friday, went away in one of the canoes 
which they might be said to come in, or rather were 
brought in, when they came as prisoners to be devoured 

1 by the savages. 

I gave each of them a musket with a firelock on it, and 
j about eight charges of powder and ball, charging them to 
^ be very good husbands of both, and not to use either of 
r them but upon urgent occasion. 

This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used 
by me in view of my deliverance for now twenty-seven 
years and some days. I gave them provisions of bread 
and of dried grapes sufficient for themselves for many days, 

1 and sufficient for all their countrymen for about eight days' 
time; and wishing them a good voyage, I see them go, 
agreeing with them about a signal they should hang out at 
their return, by which I should know them again when 
they came back at a distance, before they came on shore. 

They went away with a fair gale on the day that the 


298 


The Life and Adventures of 


moon was at full by my account, in the month of October. 1 ( 
But as for an exact reckoning of days, after I had once lost t 
it, I could never recover it again ; nor had I kept even the 0 
number of years so punctually as to be sure that I was t 
right, though, as it proved when I afterwards examined my 
account, I found I had kept a true reckoning of years. 

It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, 1 
when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of 1 
which the like has not perhaps been heard of in history. < 
I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man 1 
Friday came running in to me and called aloud, “ Master, 
master, they are come, they are come ! ” 

I jumped up, and regardless of danger, I went out as * 
soon as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove, * 
which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very 
thick wood ; I say, regardless of danger, I went without 
my arms, which was not my custom to do ; but I was sur- 
prised, when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw 
a boat at about a league and half’s distance, standing in 
for the shore with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it ; 
and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in ; also I 
observed, presently, that they did not come from that side 
which the shore lay on, but from the southernmost end of 
the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bid him lie 
close, for these were not the people we looked for, and 
that we might not know yet whether they were friends or 1 
enemies. 

In the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective- 
glass to see what I could make of them ; and having taken 
the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used 
to do when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take 
my view the plainer without being discovered. 

I had scarcely set my foot on the hill, when my eye 
plainly discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two 


Robinson Crusoe 


299 

leagues and a half’s distance from me south-southeast, 

: j but not above a league and a half from the shore. By my 
observation it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and 
the boat appeared to be an English long-boat. 

I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy 
of seeing a ship, and one who I had reason to believe was 
i manned by my own countrymen and consequently friends, 
i was such as I cannot describe. But yet I had some secret 
doubts hung about me, I cannot tell from whence they 
came, bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, 
it occurred to me to consider what business an English ship 
I could have in that part of the world, since it was not the 
- j way to or from any part of the world where the English 
had any traffic ; and I knew there had been no storms to 
drive them in there as in distress ; and that if they were 
English really, it was most probable that they were here 
upon no good design, and that I had better continue as I 
| was than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers. 

, Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of 
danger, which sometime are given him when he may 
think there is no possibility of its being real. That such 
hints and notices are given us, I believe few that have 
made any observations of things can deny ; that they are 
certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse 
of spirits, we cannot doubt ; and if the tendency of them 
seems to be to warn us of danger, why should we not 
suppose they are from some friendly agent — whether 
supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question ; 
and that they are given for our good ? 

The present question abundantly confirms me in the jus- 
tice of this reasoning ; for had I not been made cautious 
by this secret admonition, come it from whence it will, I 
had been undone inevitably, and in a far worse condition 
than before, as you will see presently. 


300 The Life and Adventures of 

I had not kept myself long in this posture, but I saw ^ 
the boat draw near the shore, as if they looked for a creek at 
to thrust in at for the convenience of landing. However, tc 
as they did not come quite far enough, they did not see f c 
the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts, but run j st 
their boats on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile 
from me; which was very happy for me, for otherwise t j 
they would have landed just, as I may say, at my door, n 
and would soon have beaten me out of my castle, and t 
perhaps have plundered me of all I had. I 

When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied that they 
were Englishmen, at least most of them. One or two I , 
thought were Dutch ; but it did not prove so. There were « 
in all eleven men, whereof three of them I found were ( 
unarmed, and, as I thought, bound ; and when the first 
four or five of them were jumped on shore, they took these 
three out of the boat as prisoners. One of the three I 
could perceive using the most passionate gestures of en- 
treaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extrava- 
gance ; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their 
hands sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not 
to such a degree as the first. 

I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not 
what the meaning of it should be. Friday called out to 
me in English as well as he could, “ O master ! you see 
English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans.” — 

“ Why,” says I, “ Friday, do you think they are a going to 
eat them, then?” — “Yes,” says Friday, “they will eat 
them.” — “No, no,” says I, “Friday; I am afraid they 
will murder them, indeed, but you may be sure they will 
not eat them.” 

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really 
was, but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, 
expecting every moment when the three prisoners should 


Robinson Crusoe 


301 


be killed ; nay, once I saw one of the villains lift up his 
arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword, 
to strike one of the poor men ; and I expected to see him 
fall every moment, at which all the blood in my body 
seemed to run chill in my veins. 

I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage 
that was gone with him, or that I had any way to have come 
undiscovered within shot of them, that I might have rescued 
the three men, for I saw no firearms they had among them ; 
but it fell out to my mind another way. 

After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three 
men by the insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run 
scattering about the land, as if they wanted to see the 
country. I observed that the three other men had liberty 
to go also where they pleased ; but they sat down all three 
upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in 
despair. 

This put me in mind of the first time when I came on 
shore and began to look about me ; how I gave myself 
over for lost ; how wildly I looked round me ; what dread- 
ful apprehensions I had ; and how I lodged in the tree all 
night for fear of being devoured by wild beasts. 

As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was to 
receive by the providential driving of the ship nearer the 
land by the storms and tide, by which I have since been 
so long nourished and supported ; so these three poor 
desolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance 

( and supply they were, how near it was to them, and how 
effectually and really they were in a condition of safety, 
at the same time that they thought themselves lost, and 
their case desperate. 

So little do we see before us in the world, and so much 
reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker 
of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so 


302 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

absolutely destitute, but that in the worst circumstances 
they have always something to be thankful for, and some- 
times are nearer their deliverance than they imagine ; nay, 
are even brought to their deliverance by the means by 
which they seem to be brought to their destruction. 

It was just at the top of high-water when these people 
came on shore, and while partly they stood parleying with 
the prisoners they brought, and partly while they rambled 
about to see what kind of a place they were in, they 
had carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the 
water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat 
aground. 

They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found 
afterwards, having drank a little too much brandy, fell 
asleep ; however, one of them waking sooner than the 
other, and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir 
it, hallooed for the rest who were straggling about, upon 
which they all soon came to the boat ; but it was past all 
their strength to launch her, the boat being very heavy, 
and the shore on that side being a soft oozy sand, almost 
like a quicksand. 

In this condition, like true seamen, who are perhaps the 
least of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it 
over, and away they strolled about the country again ; and 
I heard one of them say aloud to another, calling them off 
from the boat, “Why, let her alone, Jack, can’t ye; she 
will float next tide ; ” — by which I was fully confirmed in 
the main inquiry of what countrymen they were. 

All this while I kept myself very close, not once daring 
to stir out of my castle any farther than to my place of 
observation near the top of the hill ; and very glad I was 
to think how well it was fortified. I knew it was no less 
than ten hours before the boat could be on float again, and 
by that time it would be dark, and I might be at more 



• A \ f 


are ye 3 < gentr/emen ? 



3 ° 4 


The Life and Adventures of 


liberty to see their motions, and to hear their discourse, if 
they had any. 

In the meantime I fitted myself up for a battle as before; 
though with more caution, knowing I had to do with an- 
other kind of enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday 
also, who I had made an excellent marksman with his gun, 
to load himself with arms. I took myself two fowling- 
pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My figure indeed 
was very fierce : I had my formidable goat-skin coat on, 
with the great cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by 
my side, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each 
shoulder. 

It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any 
attempt till it was dark; but about two o’clock, being the 
heat of the day, I found that in short they were all gone 
straggling into the woods, and, as I thought, were laid 
down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too anxious 
for their condition to get any sleep, were, however, set 
down under the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter 
of a mile from me, and, as I thought, out of sight of any 
of the rest. 

Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and 
learn something of their condition. Immediately I marched 
in the figure as above, my man Friday at a good distance 
behind me, as formidable for his arms as I, but not making 
quite so staring a spectre-like figure as I did. 

I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and then, 
before any of them saw me, I called aloud to them in 
Spanish, “ What are ye, gentlemen ? ” 

They started up at the noise, but were ten times more 
confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure 
that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought 
I perceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke 
to them in English. “Gentlemen,” said I, “do not be 


sur 

wh 

fro 

am 

CO! 

he 

p 

V 

y ( 

w 

tr 

tc 

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a 

a 

1 ; 

I 

1 


Robinson Crusoe 


305 


^ surprised at me ; perhaps you may have a friend near you 
when you did not expect it.” — “ He must be sent directly 
i from heaven then,” said one of them very gravely to me, 
l * and pulling off his hat at the same time to me, “ for our 
1 condition is past the help of man.” — “ All help is from 
> heaven, sir,” said I; “but can you put a stranger in the 
• way how to help you, for you seem to me to be in some 
1 great distress? I saw you when you landed; and when 
) you seemed to make applications to the brutes that came 
with you, I saw one of them lift up his sword to kill you.” 

1 The poor man, with tears running down his face, and 
; trembling, looking like one astonished, returned, “ Am I 
r talking to God or man ? Is it a real man or an angel ? ” — 
; “ Be in no fear about that, sir,” said I ; “if God had sent 
; an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, 
and armed after another manner than you see me in. Pray 
lay aside your fears ; I am a man, an Englishman, and dis- 
posed to assist you, you see. I have one servant only ; we 
have arms and ammunition ; tell us freely. Can we serve 
you ? What is your case ? ” 

“ Our case,” said he, “ sir, is too long to tell you while 
our murderers are so near ; but in short, sir, I was com- 
jmander of that ship ; my men have mutinied against me ; 
Ithey have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and 
at last have set me on shore in this desolate place, with 
these two men with me ; one my mate, the other a passen- 
ger, where we expected to perish, believing the place to be 
uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it.” 

“ Where are those brutes, your enemies?” said I; “do 
you ‘know where they are gone?” — “There they lie, sir,” 
isaid he, pointing to a thicket of trees. “ My heart trem- 
bles for fear they have seen us and heard you speak; if 
they have, they will certainly murder us all.” 

“ Have they any firearms ?” said I. He answered they 


x 


3°6 


The Life and Adventures of 


had only two pieces, and one which they left in the boat. 
“Well then,” said I, “ leave the rest to me; I see they are 
all asleep ; it is an easy thing to kill them all ; but shall we 
rather take them prisoners ? ” He told me there were two 
desperate villains among them that it was scarce safe to 
show any mercy to ; but if they were secured, he believed 
all the rest would return to their duty. I asked him which 
they were. He told me he could not at that distance 
describe them ; but he would obey my orders in anything 
I would direct. “ Well,” says I, “ let us retreat out of their 
view or hearing, lest they awake, and we will resolve 
further ; ” so they willingly went back with me, till the 
woods covered us from them. 

“ Look you, sir,” said I, “if I venture upon your deliver- 
ance, are you willing to make two conditions with me ? ” 
He anticipated my proposals by telling me that both he and 
the ship, if recovered, should be wholly directed and com- 
manded by me in everything ; and if the ship was not 
recovered, he would live and die with me in what part of 
the world soever I would send him, and the two other men 
said the same. 

“Well,” says I, “my conditions are but two. i. That 
while you stay on this island with me you will not pretend 
to any authority here ; and if I put arms into your hands, 
you will upon all occasions give them up to me, and do no 
prejudice to me or mine upon this island, and in the mean- 
time be governed by my orders. 

“ 2. That if the ship is, or may be recovered, you will 
carry me and my man to England passage free.” 

He gave me all the assurances that the invention and 
faith of man could devise, that he would comply with 
these most reasonable demands, and besides would owe 
his life to me, and acknowledge it upon all occasions as 
long as he lived. 


Robinson Crusoe 


307 


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“ Well, then,” said I, “ here are three muskets for you, 
with powder and ball ; tell me next what you think is proper 
to be done.” He showed all the testimony of his grati- 
tude that he was able ; but offered to be wholly guided by 
me. I told him I thought it was hard venturing anything; 
but the best method I could think of was to fire upon them 
at once as they lay ; and if any was not killed at the first 
volley, and offered to submit, we might save them, and so 
put it wholly upon God’s providence to direct the shot. 

He said very modestly, that he was loath to kill them if 
he could help it, but that those two were incorrigible vil- 
lains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the 
ship, and if they escaped we should be undone still ; for 
they would go on board and bring the whole ship’s com- 
pany, and destroy us all. “Well, then,” says I, “neces- 
sity legitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save 
our lives.” However, seeing him still cautious of shed- 
ding blood, I told him they should go themselves, and 
manage as they found convenient. 

In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them 
awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. 
I asked him if either of them were of the men who he had 
said were the heads of the mutiny? He said, “No.” 
— “Well then,” said I, “you may let them escape; and 
Providence seems to have wakened them on purpose to 
save themselves. Now,” says I, “if the rest escape you, 
it is your fault.” 

Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him 
in his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades 
with him, with each man a piece in his hand. The two 
men who were with him, going first, made some noise, at 
which one of the seamen who was awake turned about, 
and seeing them coming, cried out to the rest. But it was 
too late then ; for the moment he cried out, they fired — 


3°8 


The Life and Adventures of 


I mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own 
piece. They had so well aimed their shot at the men they 
knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the 
other very much wounded ; but not being dead, he started 
up upon his feet, and called eagerly for help to the other ; 
but the captain, stepping to him, told him it was too late 
to cry for help, he should call upon God to forgive his vil- 
lany, and with that word knocked him down with the 
stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more. There 
were three more in the company, and one of them was also 
slightly wounded. By this time I was come, and when 
they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, 
they begged for mercy. The captain told them he would 
spare their lives, if they would give him any assurance of 
their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of, j 
and would swear to be faithful to him in recovering the j 
ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica, from ( 
whence they came. They gave him all the protestation of 
their sincerity that could be desired, and he was willing to r 
believe them and spare their lives, which I was not against ; 
only I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while f 
they were upon the island. 

While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain’s ^ 
mate to the boat, with orders to secure her and bring away 
the oars and sail ; which they did. And by-and-by, three ^ 
straggling men, that were (happily for them) parted from 
the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired ; and see- 
ing their captain, who before was their prisoner, now their y 
conqueror, they submitted to be bound also, and so our n 
victory was complete. 


a 

ti 


Robinson Crusoe 


309 


XVII. Crusoe and the captain — They plan 
to get the ship out of the hands of the 
mutineers — More of them come ashore 
— They are ambushed and lay down 
their arms — The ship is taken from 
the mutineers — Crusoe leaves the 
island. 

It now remained that the captain and I should inquire 
into one another’s circumstances. I began first, and told 
e him my whole history, which he heard with an attention 
11 even to amazement ; and particularly at the wonderful 
^ manner of my being furnished with provisions and ammu- 
J 1 nition. And, indeed, as my story is a whole collection of 
• wonders, it affected him deeply. But when he reflected 
from thence upon himself, and how I seemed to have been 
preserved there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran 
down his face, and he could not speak a word more. 

Afte this communication was at end I carried him and 
his two men into my apartment, leading them in just 
where I came out, namely, at the top of the house ; 
where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had, 
and showed them all the contrivances I had made during 
my long, long inhabiting that place. 

All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly 
amazing ; but above all, the captain admired my fortifica- 
tion, and how perfectly I had concealed my retreat with a 
grove of trees, which, having been now planted near twenty 
years, and the trees growing much faster than in England, 


3 l ° 


The Life and Adventures of 


was become a little wood, and so thick, that it was unpass- ' 
able in any part of it but at that one side where I had c 
reserved my little winding passage into it. I told him this 1 
was my castle and my residence, but that I had a seat in ' 
the country, as most princes have, whither I could retreat £ 
upon occasion, and I would show him that too another 
time, but at present our business was to consider how to 1 
recover the ship. He agreed with me as to that, but told ^ 
me he was perfectly at a loss what measures to take ; for * 
that there were still six-and-twenty hands on board, who, 1 
having entered into a cursed conspiracy, by which they had i 
all forfeited their lives to the law, would be hardened in it L 
now by desperation, and would carry it on, knowing that \ 1 
if they were reduced they should be brought to the gallows j 1 
as soon as they came to England, or to any of the English i 
colonies ; and that therefore there would be no attacking ’ 
them with so small a number as we were. * 

I mused for some time upon what he had said, and found i) 
it was a very rational conclusion ; and that therefore some- | 
thing was to be resolved on very speedily, as well to draw i 
the men on board into some snare for their surprise as to 
prevent their landing upon us and destroying us. Upon 
this it presently occurred to me that in a little while the 
ship’s crew, wondering what was become of their comrades 
and of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their 
other boat to see for them, and that then perhaps they 
might come armed, and be too strong for us. This he 
allowed was rational. 

Upon this I told him the first thing we had to do was 
to stave the boat which lay upon the beach, so that they 
might not carry her off ; and taking everything out of her, 
leave her so far useless as not to be fit to swim. Accord- 
ingly we went on board, took the arms which were left on 
board out of her, and whatever else we found there, which 


Robinson Crusoe 


3il 

was a bottle of brandy and another of rum, a few biscuit- 
Ijcakes, a horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a 
jjpiece of canvas — the sugar was five or six pounds; all 
which was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and 
(sugar, of which I had had none left for many years. 

When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars, 
(mast, sail, and rudder of the boat, were carried away be- 
jfore, as above), we knocked a great hole in her bottom, 
that if they had come strong enough to master us, yet 
(they could not carry off the boat. 

Indeed it was not much in my thoughts that we could 
be able to recover the ship ; but my view was, that if they 
went away without the boat, I did not much question to 
make her fit again to carry us away to the Leeward 
Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards, in my 
‘way, for I had them still in my thoughts. 

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first 

I by main strength heaved the boat up upon the beach, so 
high that the tide would not float her off at high-water 
mark ; and besides, had broke a hole in her bottom too 
big to be quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what 
we should do ; we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her 
make a waft with her ancient, as a signal for the boat to 
come on board ; but no boat stirred ; and they fired several 
times, making other signals for the boat. 

At last, when all their signals and firings proved fruit- 
j less, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them, 
by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat out, and row 
towards the shore ; and we found as they approached that 
there was no less than ten men in her, and that they had 
firearms with them. 

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we 
had a full view of them as they came, and a plain sight of 
the men, even of their faces ; because the tide having set 


3 12 


The Life and Adventures of 


them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowed up 
under shore to come to the same place where the other 
had landed, and where the boat lay. 

By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and 
the captain knew the persons and characters of all the 
men in the boat, of whom he said that there were three 
very honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led into this ' 
conspiracy by the rest, being overpowered and frighted. 

But that as for the boatswain, who it seems was the chief 
officer among them, and all the rest, they were as outra- 
geous as any of the ship’s crew, and were no doubt made 
desperate in their new enterprise ; and terribly apprehen- 
sive he was that they would be too powerful for us. 

I smiled at him, and told him that men in our circum- 
stances were past the operation of fear : that seeing almost , 
every condition that could be was better than that which 1 
we were supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the ! 
consequence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a | 
deliverance. I asked him what he thought of the circum- 
stances of my life, and whether a deliverance were not 
worth venturing for? “And where, sir,” said I, “is your 
belief of my being preserved here on purpose to save your 
life, which elevated you a little while ago ? For my part,” 
said I, “ there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the 
prospect of it.” — “What’s that?” says he. “Why,” said 
I, “ ’tis that, as you say, there are three or four honest 
fellows among them, which should be spared. Had they 
been all of the wicked part of the crew, I should have 
thought God’s providence had singled them out to deliver t 
them into your hands; for, depend upon it, every man of 
them that comes ashore are our own, and shall die or live 
as they behave to us.” , 

As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful counte- 
nance, I found it greatly encouraged him ; so we set vigor- 


Robinson Crusoe 


313 

ously to our business. We had upon the first appear- 
ance of the boat’s coming from the ship considered of 
| separating our prisoners, and had indeed secured them 
effectually. 

Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than 
\ ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three (delivered 
men) to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out 
of danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their 
way out of the woods if they could have delivered them- 
selves. Here they left them bound, but gave them pro- 
visions, and promised them if they continued there quietly, 
to give them their liberty in a day or two ; but that if they 
[ attempted their escape, they should be put to death with- 
out mercy. They promised faithfully to bear their con- 
finement with patience, and were very thankful that they 
nad such good usage as to have provisions and a light left 
[them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made 
[ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but 
: that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance. 

The other prisoners had better usage. Two of them 
were kept pinioned indeed, because the captain was not 
free to trust them, but the other two were taken into my 
service upon their captain’s recommendation, and upon 
their solemnly engaging to live and die with us. So with 
them and the three honest men, we were seven men, well 
armed ; and I made no doubt we should be able to deal 
well enough with the ten that were a-coming, considering 
that the captain had said there were three or four honest 
men among them also. 

As soon as they got to the place where their other boat 
lay, they run their boat into the beach, and came all on 
shore, haling the boat up after them ; which I was glad to 
see, for I was afraid they would rather have left the boat 
at an anchor some distance from the shore, with some 


314 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

hands in her to guard her, and so we should not be able 
to seize the boat. 

Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to 
their other boat; and it was easy to see that they were 
under a great surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all 
that was in her, and a great hole in her bottom. 

After they had mused a while upon this, they set up 
two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, 
to try if they could make their companions hear ; but all 
was to no purpose. Then they came all close in a ring, 
and fired a volley of their small arms; which indeed we 
heard, and the echoes made the woods ring, but it was all 
one ; those in the cave, we were sure, could not hear ; and 
those in our keeping, though they heard it well enough, 
yet durst give no answer to them. 

They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as 
they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board 
again to their ship, and let them know there that the men 
were all murdered, and the long-boat staved. Accordingly, 
they immediately launched their boat again, and gat all of 
them on board. 

The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded 
at this, believing they would go on board the ship again, 
and set sail, giving their comrades up for lost, and so he 
should still lose the ship, which he was in hopes we should 
have recovered. But he was quickly as much frighted the 
other way. 

They had not been long put off with the boat, but we 
perceived them all coming on shore again ; but with this 
new measure in their conduct, which it seems they con- 
sulted together upon — namely, to leave three men in the 
boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country 
to look for their fellows. 

This was a great disappointment to us ; for now we were 





3 1 6 The Life and Adventures of 

at a loss what to do : for our seizing those seven men on 
shore would be no advantage to us if we let the boat 
escape ; because they would then row away to the ship, 
and then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set 
sail, and so our recovering the ship would be lost. 

However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what 
the issue of things might present. The seven men came 
on shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her 
off to a good distance from the shore, and came to an 
anchor to wait for them ; so that it was impossible for us 
to come at them in the boat. 

Those that came on shore kept close together, marching 
towards the top of the little hill under which my habita- 
tion lay ; and we could see them plainly, though they could 
not perceive us. We could have been very glad they would 
have come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them, 
or that they would have gone farther off, that we might 
have come abroad. 

But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where 
they could see a great way into the valleys and woods which 
lay towards the northeast part, and where the island lay 
lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary ; and 
not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far 
from one another, they sat down together under a tree to 
consider of it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep 
there, as the other party of them had done, they had done 
the job for us; but they were too full of apprehensions of 
danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could not 
tell what the danger was they had to fear neither. 

The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this 
consultation of theirs, namely, that perhaps they would all 
fire a volley again, to endeavor to make their fellows hear, 
and that we should all sally upon them just at the juncture 
when their pieces were all discharged, and they would cer- 


Robinson Crusoe 


317 

1 tainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed. 
11 ! I liked the proposal provided it was done while we were 
near enough to come up to them before they could load 
their pieces again. 

But this event did not happen, and we lay still a long 
1 time very irresolute what course to take. At length I told 
ie ;jthem there would be nothing to be done in my opinion till 
:r night, and then, if they did not return to the boat, perhaps 
1 we might find a way to get between them and the shore, 
1S and so might use some stratagem with them in the boat to 
get them on shore. 

! We waited a great while, though very impatient for their 
removing ; and were very uneasy when, after long consulta- 
tions, we saw them start all up and march down toward 
the sea. It seems they had such dreadful apprehensions 
upon them of the danger of the place, that they resolved 
to go on board the ship again, give their companions over 
for lost, and so go on with their intended voyage with the 
ship. 

As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I 
imagined it to be, as it really was, that they had given 
over their search, and were for going back again ; and the 
captain, as soon as I told him my thoughts, was ready to 
sink at the apprehensions of it ; but I presently thought 
of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered 
my end to a tittle. 

I ordered Friday and the captain’s mate to go over the 
little creek westward, towards the place where the savages 
came on shore when Friday was rescued ; and as soon as 
they came to a little rising ground, at about half a mile dis- 
tance, I bade them halloo as loud as they could, and wait 
till they found the seamen heard them ; that as soon as 
ever they heard the seamen answer them they should 
return it again ; and then, keeping out of sight, take a 


31 8 The Life and Adventures of 

round, always answering when the other hallooed, to draw 
them as far into the island, and among the woods, as pos- 
sible ; and then wheel about again to me by such ways as 
I directed them. 

They were just going into the boat when Friday and the 
mate hallooed ; and they presently heard them, and answer- 
ing, run along the shore westward, towards the voice they 
heard, when they were presently stopped by the creek, 
where the water being up, they could not get over, and 
called for the boat to come up and set them over, as 
indeed I expected. 

When they had set themselves over, I observed that the 
boat, being gone up a good way into the creek, and, as it 
were, in a harbor within the land, they took one of the 
three men out of her to go along with them, and left only 
two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little 
tree on the shore. 

This was what I wished for, and immediately leaving 
Friday and the captain’s mate to their business, I took the 
rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their sight, we 
surprised the two men before they were aware; one of 
them lying on shore, and the other being in the boat. 
The fellow on shore was between sleeping and waking, 
and going to start up, the captain, who was foremost, ran 
in upon him, and knocked him down, and then called out 
to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man. 

There needed very few arguments to persuade a single 
man to yield when he saw five men upon him, and his com- 
rade knocked down ; besides, this was, it seems, one of the 
three who were not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of 
the crew, and therefore was easily persuaded not only to 
yield, but afterwards to join very sincerely with us. 

In the meantime Friday and the captain’s mate so well 
managed their business with the rest, that they drew them, 


Robinson Crusoe 


3 T 9 






S 

e 

e 


by hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and 
from one wood to another, till they not only heartily tired 
them, but left them where they were very sure they could 
not reach back to the boat before it was dark ; and indeed 
they were heartily tired themselves also by the time they 
came back to us. 

We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the 
dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make sure work with 
them. 

It was several hours after Friday came back to me before 
they came back to their boat : and we could hear the fore- 
most of them long before they came quite up, calling to 
those behind to come along ; and could also hear them 
answer and complain how lame and tired they were, and 
not able to come any faster — which was very welcome 
news to us. 

At length they came up to the boat; but ’tis impossible 
to express their confusion when they found the boat fast 
aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two 
men gone ! We could hear them call to one another in a 
most lamentable manner, telling one another they were 
gotten into an enchanted island : that either there were 
inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered ; or else 
there were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all 
carried away, and devoured. 

They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by 
their names a great many times ; but no answer. After 
some time we could see them, by the little light there was, 
run about wringing their hands like men in despair ; and 
that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to 
rest themselves, then come ashore again and walk about 
again, and so the same thing over again. 

My men would fain have me give them leave to fall upon 
them at once in the dark ; but I was willing to take them. 


320 


The Life and Adventures of 


at some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of 
them as I could ; and especially I was unwilling to hazard 
the killing any of our own men, knowing the others were 
very well armed. I resolved to wait to see if they did not 
separate ; and therefore to make sure of them, I drew my 
ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to 
creep upon their hands and feet as close to the ground as 
they could, that they might not be discovered, and get 
as near them as they could possibly, before they offered to 
fire. 

They had not been long in that posture but that the 
boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, 
and had now shown himself the most dejected and dispirited 
of all the rest, came walking towards them with two more 
of their crew. The captain was so eager, as having this 
principal rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly 
have patience to let him come so near as to be sure of 
him ; for they only heard his tongue before. But when 
they came nearer, the captain and Friday starting up on 
their feet, let fly at them. 

The boatswain was killed upon the spot, the next man 
was shot into the body, and fell just by him, though he did 
not die till an hour or two after ; and the third ran for it. 

At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my 
whole army which was now eight men, namely, myself 
generalissimo , Friday my lieutenant-general, the captain 
and his two men, and the three prisoners of war, who we 
had trusted with arms. 

We came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they 
could not see our number ; and I made the man we had 
left in the boat, who was now one of us, call to them by 
name, to try if I could bring them to a parley, and so might 
perhaps reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we 
desired. For indeed it was easy to think, as their condi- 


Robinson Crusoe 


321 


■i 

:e 

t 

7 

:) 


i$ 


it 

to 

te- 

id 

re 

is 

i 

)f 


n 

d 


f 

f 

1 


tion then was, they would be very willing to capitulate. So 
he calls out as loud as he could to one of them, “Tom 
Smith, Tom Smith,” Tom Smith answered immediately, 
“ Who’s that, Robinson ? ” for it seems he knew his voice. 
The other answered, “ Ay, ay ; for God’s sake, Tom Smith, 
throw down your arms and yield, or you are all dead men 
this moment.” 

“ Who must we yield to ? where are they ? ” says Smith 
again. “ Here they are,” says he ; “ here’s our captain, 
and fifty men with him, have been hunting you this two 
hours; the boatswain is killed, Will Frye is wounded, and 
I am a prisoner ; and if you do not yield, you are all 
lost.” 

“ Will they give us quarter, then,” says Tom Smith, “ and 
we will yield ? ” — “ I’ll go and ask, if you promise to yield,” 
says Robinson. So he asked the captain, and the captain 
then calls himself out, “You, Smith, you know my voice, if 
you lay down your arms immediately and submit, you shall 
have your lives — all but Will Atkins.” 

Upon this Will Atkins cried out, “For God’s sake, cap- 
tain, give me quarter ; what have I done ? They have been 
all as bad as I;” — which, by the way, was not true 
neither ; for it seems this Will Atkins was the first man 
that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied, and 
used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him 
injurious language. However, the captain told him he 
must lay down his arms at discretion, and trust to the gov- 
ernor’s mercy ; by which he meant me, for they all called 
me governor. 

In a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged 
their lives ; and I sent the man that had parleyed with 
them, and two more, who bound them all ; and then my 
great army of fifty men, which particularly with those 
three, were all but eight, came up and seized upon them all, 




Y 


322 The Life and Adventures of 

and upon their boat — only that I kept myself and one 
more out of sight, for reasons of state. 

Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seiz- 
ing the ship ; and as for the captain, now he had leisure to 
parley with them, he expostulated with them upon the 
villany of their practices with him, and at length upon the 
farther wickedness of their design, and how certainly it 
must bring them to misery and distress in the end, and 
perhaps to the gallows. 

They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for 
their lives. As for that, he told them, they were none of 
his prisoners, but the commander of the island ; that they 
thought they had set him on shore in a barren uninhabited 
island, but it had pleased God so to direct them, that the 
island was inhabited, and that the governor was an English- 
man : that he might hang them all there if he pleased ; but 
as he had given them all quarter, he supposed he would 
send them to England to be dealt with there, as justice 
required — except Atkins, who he was commanded by the 
governor to advise to prepare for death, for that he would 
be hanged in the morning. 

Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had its 
desired effect. Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the cap- 
tain to intercede with the governor for his life ; and all the 
rest begged of him for God’s sake that they might not be 
sent to England. 

It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance 
was come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring 
these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the 
ship ; so I retired in the dark from them, that they might 
not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the 
captain to me. When I called, as at a good distance, one 
of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the 
captain, “ Captain, the commander calls for you.” And 


Robinson Crusoe 


323 

presently the captain replied, “Tell his excellency I am 
ust a-coming.” This more perfectly amused them; and 
:hey all believed that the commander was just by with his 
ifty men. 

Upon the captain’s coming to me I told him my project 
or seizing the ship, which he liked of wonderfully well, 
iind resolved to put it in execution the next morning. 

But in order to execute it with more art, and secure of 
success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that 
pe should go and take Atkins and two more of the worst 
)f them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the 
others lay. This was committed to Friday and the two 
men who came on shore with the captain. 

They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison ; and 
it was indeed a dismal place, especially to men in their 
condition. 

The other I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which 
I have given a full description ; and as it was fenced in, 
and they pinioned, the place was secure enough, consider- 
ing they were upon their behavior. 

To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to 
enter into a parley with them ; in a word, to try them, and 
tell me whether he thought they might be trusted or no to 
go on board and surprise the ship. He talked to them of 
Ithe injury done him, of the condition they were brought 
to ; and that though the governor had given them quarter 
for their lives as to the present action, yet that if they 
;were sent to England they would all be hanged in chains, 
to be sure ; but that if they would join in so just an attempt 
as to recover the ship, he would have the governor’s en- 
gagement for their pardon. 

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would 
be accepted by men in their condition. They fell down 
fon their knees to the captain, and promised, with the 


3 2 4 


The Life and Adventures of 


deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to him 
to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to 
him, and would, go with him all over the world ; that they 
would own him for a father to them as long as they lived. 

“ Well/’ says the captain, “ I must go and tell the gov- 
ernor what you say, and see what I can do to bring him 
to consent to it.” So he brought me an account of the 
temper he found them in, and that he verily believed they 
would be faithful. 

However, that we might be very secure, I told him he 
should go back again, and choose out five of them, and 
tell them they might see that he did not want men, that 
he would take out those five to be his assistants, and that 
the governor would keep the other two, and the three 
that were sent prisoners to the castle (my cave) as hos- j 
tages, for the fidelity of those five ; and that if they proved 
unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages should be 
hanged in chains alive upon the shore. 

This looked severe, and convinced them that the gov- 
ernor was in earnest. However, they had no way left them 
but to accept it ; and it was now the business of the pris- 
oners, as much as of the captain, to persuade the other five 
to do their duty. 

Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition : 
i. The captain, his mate, and passenger; 2. Then the two 
prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their char- 
acters from the captain, I had given their liberty, and 
trusted them with arms ; 3. The other two who I had kept 
till now in my bower pinioned, but upon the captain’s mo- 
tion had now released ; 4. These five released at last : so 
that they were twelve in all, besides five we kept pris- 
oners in the cave for hostages. 

I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with 
these hands on board the ship ; for as for me and my man 


Robinson Crusoe 


325 






Friday, I did not think it was proper for us to stir, having 
seven men left behind, and it was employment enough for 
us to keep them asunder and supply them with victuals. 

As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, 
but Friday went in twice a day to them to supply them 
with necessaries ; and I made the other two carry provi- 
sions to a certain distance, where Friday was to take it. 

When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with 
the captain, who told them I was the person the governor 
had ordered to look after them, and that it was the gov- 
ernor’s pleasure they should not stir anywhere but by my 
direction ; that if they did, they should be fetched into the 
castle and be laid in irons. So that as we never suffered 
them to see me as governor, so I now appeared as another 
person, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle, 
and the like, upon all occasions. 

The captain now had no difficulty before him but to fur- 
nish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. 
He made his passenger captain of one, with four other 
men ; and himself, and his mate and five more, went in the 
other. And they contrived their business very well, for 
they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as 
they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail 
them, and tell them they had brought off the men and the 
boat, but that it was a long time before they had found 
them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came 
to the ship’s side ; when the captain and the mate, enter- 
ing first with their arms, immediately knocked down the 
second mate and carpenter with the butt-end of their mus- 
kets. Being very faithfully seconded by their men, they 
secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter- 
decks, and began to fasten the hatches to keep them down 
who were below, when the other boat and their men, en- 
tering at the fore-chains, secured the fore-castle of the 


The Life and Adventures of 


326 

ship, and the scuttle which went down into the cook-room, 
making three men they found their prisoners. 

When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain 
ordered the mate with three men to break into the round- 
house where the new rebel captain lay, and having taken 
the alarm, was gotten up, and with two men and a boy had 
gotten firearms in their hands ; and when the mate with a 
crow split open the door, the new captain and his men 
fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a 
musket ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more 
of the men, but killed nobody. 

The mate, calling for help, rushed however into the 
round-house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol shot 
the new captain through the head, the bullet entering at 
his mouth and came out again behind one of his ears, so 
that he never spoke a word ; upon which the rest yielded, 
and the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives 
lost. 

As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered 
seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon 
with me to give me notice of his success ; which, you may 
be sure, I was very glad to hear, having sat watching 
upon the shore for it till near two of the clock in the 
morning. 

Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down ; 
and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept 
very sound, till I was something surprised with the noise 
of a gun ; and presently starting up, I heard a man call me 
by the name of “Governor, governor and presently I 
knew the captain’s voice, when climbing up to the top of 
the hill, there he stood, and pointing to the ship he' em- 
braced me in his arms. “ My dear friend and deliverer,” 
says he, “ there’s your ship ; for she is all yours, and so 
are we and all that belong to her.” I cast my eyes to the 


Robinson Crusoe 


327 

ship, and there she rode within little more than half a mile 
of the shore ; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as 
they were masters of her, and the weather being fair, had 
brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the 
little creek ; and the tide being up, the captain had brought 
the pinnace in near the place where I at first landed my 
rafts, and so landed just at my door. 

I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise ; for 
I saw my deliverance indeed visibly put into my hands, all 
things easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away 
whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was not 
able to answer him one word ; but as he had taken me in 
his arms I held fast by him, or I should have fallen to the 
ground. 

He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulls a bottle 
out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which 
he had brought on purpose for me. After I had drank it, 
I sat down upon the ground ; and though it brought me to 
myself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a word 
to him. 

All this while the poor man was in as great an ecstasy 
as I, only not under any surprise, as I was ; and he said a 
thousand kind tender things to me, to compose me and 
bring me to myself ; but such was the flood of joy in my 
breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion. At last it 
broke out into tears, and in a little while after, I recovered 
my speech. 

Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, 
and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him 
as a man sent from Heaven to deliver me, and that the 
whole transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders ; that 
such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret 
hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence 
that the eyes of an Infinite Power could search into the 


The Life and Adventures of 


328 

remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable 
whenever he pleased. 

I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness tp 
Heaven : and what heart could forbear to bless Him, who 
had not only in a miraculous manner provided for one in 
such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but 
from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged 
to proceed ? 

When he had talked a while, the captain told me he 
had brought me some little refreshment, such as the ship 
afforded, and such as the wretches that had been so long his 
masters had not plundered him of. Upon this, he called 
aloud to the boat, and bid his men bring the things ashore 
that were for the governor ; and indeed it was a present, 
as if I had been one not that was to be carried away along 
with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the island 
still, and they were to go without me. 

First he had brought me a case of bottles full of excel- 
lent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine (the 
bottles held two quarts apiece), two pound of excellent good 
tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship’s beef, and six 
pieces of pork, with a bag of pease, and about a hundred- 
weight of biscuit. 

He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag 
full of lemons, and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance 
of other things. But besides these, and what was a thou- 
sand times more useful to me, he brought me six clean 
new shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, 
one pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a 
very good suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn 
but very little. In a word, he clothed me from head to foot. 

It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one 
may imagine, to one in my circumstances. But never was 
anything in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, 


Robinson Crusoe 


3 2 9 

and uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at their 
first putting on. 

After these ceremonies past, and after all his good 
things were brought into my little apartment, we began 
to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had ; 
for it was worth considering whether we might venture to 
take them away with us or no, especially two of them, who 
we knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last de- 
gree; and the captain said, he knew they were such 
rogues that there was no obliging them, and if he did carry 
them away it must be in irons as malefactors to be delivered 
over to justice at the first English colony he could come 
at. And I found that the captain himself was very anxious 
about it. 

Upon this, I told him that if he desired it I durst under- 
take to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their 
own request that he should leave them upon the island. 
“I should be very glad of that,” says the captain, “with 
all my heart.” 

“Well,” says I, “I will send for them up, and talk with 
them for you.” So I caused Friday and the two hostages — 
for they were now discharged, their comrades having per- 
formed their promise ; I say, I caused them to go to the 
cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to 
the bower, and keep them there till I came. 

After some time I came thither dressed in my new 
habit; and now I was called governor again. Being all 
met, and the captain with me, I caused the men to be 
brought before me; and I told them I had had a 
full account of their villanous behavior to the captain, and 
how they had run away with the ship, and were preparing 
to commit farther robberies, but that Providence had en- 
snared them in their own ways, and that they were fallen 
into the pit which they had digged for others. 


3jo The Life and Adventures of 

I let them know that by my direction the ship had been 
seized, that she lay now in the road; and they might see 
by-and-by that their new captain had received the reward 
of his villany, for that they might see him hanging at the 
yard-arm. 

That as to them, I wanted to know what they had to 
say why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the 
fact, as by my commission they could not doubt I had 
authority to do. 

One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they 
had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken 
the captain promised them their lives ; and they humbly 
implored my mercy. But I told them I knew not what 
mercy to show them; for as for myself I had resolved to 
quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage 
with the captain to go for England ; and as for the captain 
he could not carry them to England other than as 
prisoners in irons to be tried for mutiny and running away 
with the ship, the consequence of which, they must needs 
know, would be the gallows: so that I could not tell 
which was best for them, unless they had a mind to take 
their fate in the island. If they desired that (I did not 
care, as I had liberty to leave it), I had some inclination to 
give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on 
shore. 

They seemed very thankful for it, said they would much 
rather venture to stay there than to be carried to England 
to be hanged. So I left it on that issue. 

However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty 
of it, as if he durst not leave them there. Upon this I 
seemed a little angry with the captain, and told him that 
they were my prisoners, not his; and that seeing I had 
offered them so much favor, I would be as good as my 
word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, I 



✓ ( 

I flowed t|fern Tfje. qew G^-ptedi? tyzjQgivg 





















































Robinson Crusoe 


33 1 


would set them at liberty as I found them, and if he did not 
like it, he might take them again if he could catch them. 

Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accord- 
ingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the 
woods to the place whence they came, and I would leave 
them some firearms, some ammunition, and some directions 
how they should live very well, if they thought fit. 

Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship, but told 
the captain that I would stay that night to prepare my 
things, and desired him to go on board in the meantime 
and keep all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore 
the next day for me ; ordering him in the meantime to cause 
the new captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard- 
; arm that these men might see him. 

When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to 
me to my apartment, and entered seriously into discourse 
with them of their circumstances. I told them I thought 
they had made a right choice ; that if the captain carried 
them away, they would certainly be hanged. I showed 
them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, 
and told them they had nothing less to expect. 

When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I 
then told them I would let them into the story of my living 
there, and put them into the way of making it easy to 
; them. Accordingly I gave them the whole history of the 
! place and of my coming to it ; showed them my fortifica- 
tions, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured 
my grapes ; and in a word, all that was necessary to make 
them easy. I told thfm the story also of the sixteen 
Spaniards that were to be expected; for whom I left a 
letter, and made them promise to treat them in common 
with themselves. 

I left them my firearms, namely, five muskets, three 
: fowling-pieces, and three swords. I had above a barrel 


332 The Life and Adventures of 

and half of powder left ; for after the first year or two I 
used but little and wasted none. I gave them a descrip- 
tion of the way I managed the goats, and directions to 
milk and fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese. | 

In a word, I gave them every part of my own story. j 
And I told them I would prevail with the captain to leave j 
them two barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden- I 
seeds, which I told them I would have been very glad of ; j 
also I gave them the bag of pease which the captain had ] 
brought me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and 
increase them. 

Having done all this I left them the next day, and went 
on board the ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but 
did not weigh that night. The next morning early two of 
the five men came swimming to the ship’s side, and making 
a most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to 
be taken into the ship, for God’s sake, for they should be 
murdered, and begged the captain to take them on board 
though he hanged them immediately. 

Upon this the captain pretended to have no power with- 
out me. But after some difficulty, and after their solemn 
promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and 
were some time after soundly whipped and pickled ; after 
which they proved very honest and quiet fellows. 

Some time after this the boat was ordered on shore, the 
tide being up, with the things promised to the men ; to 
which the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests 
and clothes to be added ; which they took, and were very 
thankful for. I also encouraged them, by telling them 
that if it lay in my way to send any vessel to take them 
in, I would not forget them. 


Robinson Crusoe 


333 


XVIII. Crusoe arrives in England — 
Nearly all his relations and friends 
are dead — His benefactor and stew- 
ard has fallen on evil days — Goes to 
Lisbon and recovers his property in 
the Brazils — Crusoe now finds him- 
self a rich man , and rewards his faith- 
ful stewards. 

When I took leave of this island I carried on board for 
relics the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, 
and my parrot ; also I forgot not to take the money I 
formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so long useless 
that it was grown rusty, or tarnished, and could hardly pass 
for silver till it had been a little rubbed and handled ; as 
also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. 

And thus I left the island the 19th of December, as I 
found by the ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had 
been upon it eight and twenty years, two months, and nine- 
teen days ; being delivered from this second captivity the 
same day of the month that I first made my escape in the 
Barco Longo from among the Moors of Sallee. 

In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England 
the nth of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty and 
five years absent. 

When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger 
to all the world as if I had never been known there. My 
benefactor and faithful steward, who I had left in trust 
with my money, was alive, but had had great misfortunes 
in the world ; was become a widow the second time, and 


334 


The Life and Adventures of 


very low in the wofld. I made her easy as to what she 
owed me, assuring her I would give her no trouble ; but 
on the contrary, in gratitude to her former care and faith- 
fulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock would afford, 
which at that time would indeed allow me to do but little 
for her ; but I assured her I would never forget her former 
kindness to me : nor did I forget her when I had sufficient 
to help her, as shall be observed in its place. 

I went down afterwards into Yorkshire, but my father 
was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct, except 
that I found two sisters and two of the children of one of 
my brothers ; and as I had been long ago given over for 
dead, there had been no provision made for me : so that, 
in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me ; and 
that little money I had would not do much for me as to 
settling in the world. 

I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I did 
not expect ; and this was, that the master of the ship, who 
I had so happily delivered, and by the same means saved 
the ship and cargo, having given a very handsome account 
to the owners of the manner how I had saved the lives of 
the men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them and 
some other merchants concerned, and all together made 
me a very handsome compliment upon the subject, and a 
present of almost two hundred pounds sterling. 

But after making several reflections upon the circum- 
stances of my life, and how little way this would go towards 
settling me in the world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and 
see if I might not come by some information of the state 
of my plantation in the Brazils, and of what was become 
of my partner, who I had reason to suppose had some years 
now given me over for dead. 

With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I 
arrived in April following, my man Friday accompanying 


Robinson Crusoe 


335 


tn 




me very honestly in all these ramblings, and proving a 
most faithful servant upon all occasions. 

When I came to Lisbon I found out by inquiry, and to 
my particular satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of 
the ship who first took me up at sea off the shore of Africk. 
He was now grown old, and had left off the sea, having 
put his son, who was far from a young man, into his ship, 
and who still used the Brazil trade. The old man did not 
know me, and indeed I hardly knew him; but I soon 
brought him to my remembrance, and as soon brought 
myself to his remembrance when I told him who I was. 

After some passionate expressions of the old acquaint- 
ance, I inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and 
my partner. The old man told me he had not been in the 
Brazils for about nine years ; but that he could assure me 
that when he came away my partner was living, but the 
trustees who I had joined with him to take cognizance of 
my part were both dead. That, however, he believed that 
I would have a very good account of the improvement of 
the plantation : for that, upon the general belief of my 
being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in 
the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to 
the procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I 
never came to claim it; one third to the King, and two 
thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended 
for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the 
Indians to the Catholic faith ; but that if I appeared, or 
any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it should be 
restored, only that the improvement or annual production 
being distributed to charitable uses could not be restored. 
But he assured me that the steward of the King’s revenue 
(from lands) and the proviedore, or steward of the monas- 
tery, had taken great care all along that the incumbent, 
that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful 


336 The Life and Adventures of 

account of the produce, of which they received duly my 
moiety. 

I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement 
he had brought the plantation ; and whether he thought it 
might be worth looking after ? or whether, on my going 
thither, I should meet with no obstruction to my possess- 
ing my just right in the moiety ? 

He told me he could not tell exactly to what degree the 
plantation was improved, but this he knew, that my partner 
was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying but one half 
of it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had 
heard that the King’s third of my part, which was, it seems, 
granted away to some other monastery or religious house, 
amounted to above two hundred moidores a year : that as 
to my being restored to a quiet possession of it, there was 
no question to be made of that, my partner being alive to 
witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in the 
register of the country. Also, he told me the survivors of 
my two trustees were very fair, honest people, and very 
wealthy ; and he believed I would not only have their 
assistance for putting me in possession, but would find a 
very considerable sum of money in their hands for my 
account ; being the produce of the farm while their fathers 
held the trust, and before it was given up as above, which, 
as he remembered, was for about twelve years. 

I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this 
account, and inquired of the old captain how it came to 
pass that the trustees should thus dispose my effects when 
he knew that I had made my will, and had made him, the 
Portuguese captain, my universal heir, etc. 

He told me that was true ; but that, as there was no 
proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor until 
some certain account should come of my death, and that, 
besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so 


Robinson Crusoe 


33 7 


remote ; that it was true he had registered my will, and 
put in his claim ; and could he have given any account of 
my being dead or alive, he would have acted by procura- 
tion, and taken possession of the ingenio (so they called 
the sugar-house), and had given his son, who was now at 
the Brazils, order to do it. 

“ But,” says the old man, “ I have one piece of news to 
tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you 
as the rest, and that is, that believing you were lost, and 
all the world believing so also, your partner and trustees 
did offer to account to me in your name for six or eight 
of the first years of profits, which I received; but there 
being at that time,” says he, “great disbursements for 
increasing the works, building an ingenio , and buying slaves, 
it did not amount to near so much as afterwards it pro- 
duced. However,” says the old man, “ I shall give you a 
true account of what I have received in all, and how I have 
disposed of it.” 

After a few days’ farther conference with this ancient 
friend, he brought me an account of the six first years’ 
income of my plantation, signed by my partner and the 
merchants’ trustees, being always delivered in goods, 
namely, tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, 
molasses, etc., which is the consequence of a sugar work ; 
and I found by this account that every year the income 
considerably increased, but, as above, the disbursement 
being large, the sum at first was small. However, the old 
man let me see that he was debtor to me 470 moidores of 
gold, besides 60 chests of sugar and 15 double rolls of 
tobacco, which were lost in his ship ; he having been ship- 
wrecked coming home to Lisbon about eleven years after 
my leaving the place. 

The good man then began to complain of his misfor- 
tunes, and how he had been obliged to make use of my 


338 The Life and Adventures of 

money to recover his losses, and buy him a share in a new 
ship. “ However, my old friend/’ says he, “ you shall not 
want a supply in your necessity ; and as soon as my son 
returns, you shall be fully satisfied.” 

Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me 160 
Portugal moidores in gold ; and giving me the writing of 
his title to the ship which his son was gone to the Brazils 
in, of which he was a quarter part owner and his son an- 
other, he puts them both into my hands for security of the 
rest. 

I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness 
of the poor man to be able to bear this ; and remember- 
ing what he had done for me, how he had taken me up at 
sea, and how generously he had used me on all occasions, 
and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, 
I could hardly refrain weeping at what he said to me. 
Therefore first I asked him if his circumstances admitted 
him to spare so much money at that time, and if it would 
not straiten him ? He told me he could not say but it 
might straiten him a little ; but, however, it was my money, 
and I might want it more than he. 

Everything the good man said was full of affection, and 
I could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke. In short, 
I took an hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen 
and ink to give him a receipt for them ; then I returned 
him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of the 
plantation, I would return the other to him also, as indeed 
I afterwards did : and that as to the bill of sale of his part 
in his son’s ship, I would not take it by any means ; but 
that if I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough 
to pay me ; and if I did not, but came to receive what he 
gave me reason to expect, I would never have a penny 
more from him. 

When this was past, the old man began to ask me if he 


Robinson Crusoe 


339 


should put me into a method to make my claim to my 
plantation ? I told him I thought to go over to it myself. 
He said I might do so if I pleased, but that if I did not, 
there were ways enough to secure my right, and imme- 
diately to appropriate the profits to my use. And as there 
were ships in the river of Lisbon just ready to go away to 
Brazil, he made me enter my name in a public register with 
his affidavit, affirming upon oath that I was alive, and that 
I was the same person who took up the land for the plant- 
ing the said plantation at first. 

This being regularly attested by a notary, and a procura- 
tion affixed, he directed me to send it with a letter of his 
writing to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place, 
and then proposed my staying with him till an account 
came of the return. 

Never anything was more honorable than the proceed- 
ings upon this procuration ; for in less than seven months 
I received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees 
the merchants, for whose account I went to sea, in which 
were the following particular letters and papers enclosed. 

First , There was the account current of the produce of 
my farm or plantation from the year when their fathers 
had balanced with my old Portugal captain, being for six 
years. The balance appeared to be 1174 moidores in my 
favor. 

Secondly , There was the account of four years more 
while they kept the effects in their hands, before the Gov- 
ernment claimed the administration, as being the effects 
of a person not to be found, which they call civil death ; 
and the balance of this, the value of the plantation increas- 
ing, amounted to as many crusadoes as made 3241 moi- 
dores. 

Thirdly , There was the Prior of the Augustine’s account, 
who had received the profits for above fourteen years ; but 


340 The Life and Adventures of 

not being to account for what was disposed to the hospital, 
very honestly declared he had 872 moidores not distributed, \ 
which he acknowledged to my account ; as to the King’s 
part, that refunded nothing. 

There was a letter of my partner’s, congratulating me 
very affectionately upon my being alive; giving me an } 
account how the estate was improved, and what it pro- I 
duced a year, with a particular of the number of squares I 
or acres that it contained, how planted, how many slaves ; 
there were upon it ; and making two and twenty crosses I 
for blessings, told me he had said so many Ave Marias to .J 
thank the Blessed Virgin that I was alive ; inviting me 
very passionately to come over and take possession of my 
own, and in the meantime to give him orders to whom he I 
should deliver my effects if I did not come myself ; con- 
cluding with a hearty tender of his friendship and that of 
his family, and sent me as a present seven fine leopards’ 
skins, which he had, it seems, received from Africa by 
some other ship which he had sent thither, and who, it 
seems, had made a better voyage than I. He sent me also 
five chests of excellent sweetmeats, and an hundred pieces j 
of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores. 

By the same fleet my two merchant trustees shipped me 
1200 chests of sugar, 800 rolls of tobacco, and the rest of 
the whole account in gold. 

I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job 
was better than the beginning. It is impossible to express 
the flutterings of my very heart when I looked over these 
letters, and especially when I found all my wealth about 
me. For as the Brazil ships come all in fleets, the 
same ships which brought my letters brought my goods, 
and the effects were safe in the river before the letters 
came to my hand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew 
$ick ; and had not the old man run and fetched me a cor- 


Robinson Crusoe 


34i 

dial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset 
nature and I had died upon the spot. 

Nay, after that I continued very ill, and was so some 
hours, till a physician being sent for, and something of the 
real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to be 
let blood, after which I had relief, and grew well ; but I 
verily believe if it had not been eased by a vent given in 
that manner to the spirits, I should have died. 

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above .£5000 ster- 
ling in money ; and had an estate, as I might well call it, 
in the Brazils of above ,£1000 a year, as sure as an estate 
of lands in England. And in a word, I was in a condition 
which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to com- 
pose myself for the enjoyment of it. 

The first thing I did was to recompense my original 
benefactor, my good old captain, who had been first chari- 
table to me in my distress, kind to me in my beginning, 
and honest to me at the end. I showed him all that was 
sent me ; I told him that next to the providence of Heaven, 
which disposes all things, it was owing to him ; and that 
it now lay on me to reward him, which I would do a hun- 
dredfold. So I first returned to him the 100 moidores I 
had received of him, then I sent for a notary, and caused 
him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 470 
moidores which he had acknowledged he owed me, in the 
fullest and firmest manner possible : after which I caused 
a procuration to be drawn empowering him to be my re- 
ceiver of the annual profits of my plantation, and appoint- 
ing my partner to account to him, and make the returns 
by the usual fleets to him in my name ; and a clause in the 
end, being a grant of 100 moidores a year to him during 
his life out of the effects, and 50 moidores a year to his 
son after him for his life. And thus I requited my old 


man. 


3 42 


The Life and Adventures of 


I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, 
and what to do with the estate that Providence had thus 
put into my hands ; and indeed I had more care upon my 
head now than I had in my silent state of life in the island, 1 
where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing 
but what I wanted : whereas I had now a great charge upon 
me, and my business was how to secure it. I had never 
a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where it might j 
lie without lock or key till it grew mouldy and tarnished I 
before anybody would meddle with it. On the contrary, I - 
knew not where to put it, or who to trust with it. My old 
patron the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the : 
only refuge I had. 

In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed to 
summon me thither ; but now I could not tell how to think 
of going thither till I had settled my affairs, and left my 
effects in some safe hands behind me. At first I thought 
of my old friend the widow, who I knew was honest, and 
would be just to me ; but then she was in years, and but 
poor, and for aught I knew might be in debt. So that, in 
a word, I had no way but to go back to England myself, 
and take my effects with me. 

It was some months, however, before I resolved upon 
this; and therefore, as I had rewarded the old captain fully 
and to his satisfaction, who had been my former benefactor, 
so I began to think of my poor widow whose husband had 
been my first benefactor, and she while it was in her power 
my faithful steward and instructor. So the first thing I 
did, I got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspond- 
ent in London, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her 
out, and carry her in money an hundred pounds from me, 
and to talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty by 
telling her she should, if I lived, have a farther supply. 
At the same time I sent my two sisters in the country each 


Robinson Crusoe 


343 


of them an hundred pounds, they being, though not in 
want, yet not in very good circumstances ; one having been 
married and left a widow, and the other having a husband 
not so kind to her as he should be. But among all my re- 
lations or acquaintances I could not yet pitch upon one to 
whom I durst commit the gross of my stock, that I might 
go away to the Brazils and leave things safe behind me; 
and this greatly perplexed me. 

I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils, and have 
settled myself there, for I was, as it were, naturalized to 
the place ; but I had some little scruple in my mind about 
religion, which insensibly drew me back, of which I shall 
say more presently. However, it was not religion that 
kept me from going there for the present; and as I had 
made no scruple of being openly of the religion of the 
country all the while I was among them, so neither did I 
yet ; only that now and then having of late thought more 
of it (than formerly) when I began to think of living and 
dying among them, I began to regret my having professed 
myself a Papist, and thought it might not be the best 
religion to die with. 

But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that 
kept me from going to the Brazils ; but that really I did 
not know with whom to leave my effects behind me. So I 
resolved at last to go to England with it; where, if I 
arrived, I concluded I should make some acquaintance, or 
find some relations that would be faithful to me. And 
accordingly I prepared to go for England with all my 
wealth. 

In order to prepare things for my going home, I first, 
the Brazil fleet being just going away, resolved to give 
answers suitable to the just and faithful account of things 
I had from thence. And, first, to the prior of St. Augus- 
tine I wrote a letter full of thanks for their just dealings, 


344 


The Life and Adventures of 


and the offer of the 872 moidores which was indisposed 
of ; which I desired might be given, 500 to the monastery, 
and 372 to the poor as the prior should direct, desiring the 
good padre’s prayers for me, and the like. 

I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with 
all the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty 
called for. As for sending them any present, they were 
far above having any occasion of it. 

Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry 
in the improving the plantation, and his integrity in in- 
creasing the stock of the works ; giving him instructions 
for his future government of my part, according to the 
powers I had left with my old patron, to whom I desired 
him to send whatever became due to me till he should 
hear from me more particularly ; assuring him that it 
was my intention, not only to come to him, but to settle 
myself there for the remainder of my life. To this I 
added a very handsome present of some Italian silks for 
his wife and two daughters, for such the captain’s son in- 
formed me he had ; with two pieces of fine English broad- 
cloth, the best I could get in Lisbon, five pieces of black 
baize, and some Flanders lace of a good value. 



Robinson Crusoe 


345 


XIX. Crusoe sets out for England by way 
of Spain — Difficulties of travel — 
A ttacked by wolves — Friday and the 
bear — Another encounter with wolves 
— Crusoe arrives in England — Mar- 
ries and settles there — He revisits the 
island after seven years. 

Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned 
all my effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty 
was which way to go to England. I had been accustomed 

I enough to the sea, and yet I had a strange aversion to go- 
ing to England by sea at that time ; and though I could 
give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me 
so much that though I had once shipped my baggage in 
order to go, yet I altered my mind, and that not once, but 
two or three times. 

It is true, I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this 
might be some of the reason ; but let no man slight the 
strong impulses of his Own thoughts in cases of such 
moment. Two of the ships which I had singled out to go 
in ; I mean, more particularly singled out than any other, 
that is to say, so as in one of them to put my things on 
board, and in the other to have agreed with the captain ; I 
say, two of these ships miscarried, namely, one was taken 
by the Algerines, and the other was cast away on the Start 
near Torbay, and all the people drowned except three: so 
that in either of those vessels I had been made miserable ; 
and in which most it was hard to say. 

Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, 


The Life and Adventures of 


346 


to whom I communicated everything, pressed me earnestly 
not to go by sea, but either to go by land to the Groyne, 
and cross over the Bay of Biscay to Rochelle, from whence 
it was but an easy and safe journey by land to Paris, and 
so to Calais and Dover ; or to go up to Madrid, and so all 
the way by land through France. In a word, I was so 
prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except from 
Calais to Dover, that I resolved to travel all the way by 
land ; which, as I was not in haste and did not value the 
charge, was by much the pleasanter way. And to make it ' 
more so, my old captain brought an English gentleman, the 
son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to travel 
with me ; after which we picked up two more English mer- 
chants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the last 
going to Paris only ; so that we were in all six of us, and 
five servants ; the two merchants and the two Portuguese 
contenting themselves with one servant between two to 
save the charge ; and as for me, I got an English sailor to 
travel with me as a servant, besides my man Friday, who 
was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the 
place of a servant on the road. 

In this manner I set out from Lisbon ; and our company 
being all very well mounted and armed, we made a little 
troop whereof they did me the honor to call me captain, 
as well because I was the oldest man as because I had two 
servants, and indeed was the original of the whole journey. 

As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, 
so I shall trouble you now with none of my land journals. 
But some adventures that happened to us in this tedious 
and difficult journey I must not omit. 

When we came to Madrid, we being all of us strangers 
to Spain, were willing to stay some time to see the court 
of Spain, and to see what was worth observing ; but it 
being the latter part of the summer we hastened away, 


m 


ak 

so 

ta 

P; 

to 

Id 

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: a 

< 


Robinson Crusoe 


347 


and set out from Madrid about the middle of October. 
But when we came to the edge of Navarre, we were 
jalarmed at several towns on the way with an account that 
so much snow was fallen on the French side of the moun- 
tains that several travellers were obliged to come back to 
Pampeluna, after having attempted at an extreme hazard 
to pass on. 

When we came to Pampeluna itself we found it so in- 
deed ; and to me that had been always used to a hot cli- 
mate, and indeed to countries where we could scarce bear 
any clothes on, the cold was insufferable. Nor, indeed, 
was it more painful than it was surprising to come but ten 
days before out of the Old Castile, where the weather was 
not only warm but very hot, and immediately to feel a 
wind from the Pyrenean mountains so very keen, so 
severely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger be- 
numbing and perishing of our fingers and toes. Poor 
Friday was really frighted when he saw the mountains 
all covered with snow and felt cold weather, which he 
had never seen or felt before in his life. 

To mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna it 
continued snowing with so much violence and so long that 
the people said winter was come before its time : and the 
roads, which were difficult before, were now quite impas- 
sable ; for, in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick 
for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case 
in northern countries, there was no going without being 
in danger of being buried alive every step. We stayed 
no less than twenty days at Pampeluna ; when, seeing the 
winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for 
it was the severest winter all over Europe that had been 
known in the memory of man, I proposed that we should 
all go away to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for 
Bordeaux, which was a very little voyage. 


34 8 


The Life and Adventures of 


But while we were considering this, there came in foui ; 
French gentlemen, who, having been stopped on the French 
side of the passes as we were on the Spanish, had found 
out a guide who, traversing the country near the head of j 
Languedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such 
ways that they were not much incommoded with the snow ; 
and where they met with snow in any quantity, they | 
said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and their 
horses. 

We sent for this guide, who told us he would undertake 
to carry us the same way with no hazard from the snow, 
provided we were armed sufficiently to protect us from wild 
beasts ; for he said upon these great snows it was frequent 
for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the moun- 
tains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground 
being covered with snow. We told him we were well 
enough prepared for such creatures as they were, if he 
would insure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which 
we were told we were in most danger from, especially on 
the French side of the mountains. 

He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the 
way that we were to go : so we readily agreed to follow 
him ; as did also twelve other gentlemen with their servants, 
some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted 
to go, and were obliged to come back again. 

Accordingly, we all set out from Pampeluna with our 
guide, on the 15th of November. And indeed I was sur- 
prised when, instead of going forward, he came directly 
back with us on the same road that we came from Madrid, 
above twenty miles ; when, being past two rivers, and come 
into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm cli- 
mate again, where the country was pleasant and no snow 
to be seen. But on a sudden, turning to the left, he ap- 
proached the mountains another way ; and though, it is 


Robinson Crusoe 


349 


true, the hills and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made 
so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding 
ways, that we were insensibly past the height of the moun- 
tains without being much encumbered with the snow. And 
all on a sudden he showed us the pleasant, fruitful prov- 
inces of Languedoc and Gascony, all green and flourish- 
ing; though, indeed, it was at a great distance, and we 
had some rough way to pass yet. 

We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it 
snowed one whole day and a night so fast that we could 
not travel ; but he bid us be easy, we should soon be past 
it all. We found, indeed, that we began to descend every 
day, and to come more north than before ; and so, depend- 
ing upon our guide, we went on. 

It was about two hours before night, when, our guide 
being something before us and not just in sight, out rushed 
three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear, out of a 
hollow way adjoining to a thick wood. Two of the wolves 
flew upon the guide ; and had he been half a mile before 
us he had been devoured indeed before we could have 
helped him. One of them fastened upon his horse ; and 
the other attacked the man with that violence that he had 
not time or not presence of mind enough to draw his pistol, 
but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man Fri- 
day being next to me, I bid him ride up and see what was 
the matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of the man, 
he hallooed as loud as the other, “ Oh master ! oh master ! ” 
but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man, 
and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him into the 
head. 

It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Fri- 
day ; for he having been used to that kind of creature in 
his country, had no fear upon him, but went close up to 
him, and shot him as above : whereas any of us would 


35 ° 


The Life and Adventures of 


have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either 
missed the wolf or endangered shooting the man. 

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I, 
and indeed it alarmed all our company, when with the noise 
of Friday’s pistol we heard on both sides the dismallest 
howling of wolves, and the noise redoubled by the echo of 
the mountains, that it was to us as if there had been a ; 
prodigious multitude of them : and perhaps indeed there 
was not such a few as that we had no cause of apprehen- 
sions. 

However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other that 
had fastened upon the horse left him immediately, and fled ; 
having happily fastened upon his head, where the bosses 
of the bridle had stuck in his teeth, so that he had not done 
him much hurt. The man, indeed, was most hurt ; for the 
raging creature had bit him twice, once on the arm, and the 
other time a little above his knee; and he was just as it 
were tumbling down by the disorder of his horse, when 
Friday came up and shot the wolf. 

It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday’s pistol 
we all mended our pace, and rid up as fast as the way, 
which was very difficult, would give us leave, to see what 
was the matter. As soon as we came clear of the trees, 
which blinded us before, we saw clearly what had been the 
case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide, though 
we did not presently discern what kind of creature it was 
he had killed. 

But never was a fight managed so hardily and in such a 
surprising manner as that which followed between Friday 
and the bear, which gave us all (though at first we were 
surprised and afraid for him) the greatest diversion imagi- 
nable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and does 
not .gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, so he 
has two particular qualities, which generally are the rule 


Robinson Crusoe 


35i 


of his actions. First, as to men, who are not his proper 
prey ; I say, not his proper prey, because, though I cannot 
’ say what excessive hunger might do, which was now their 
t case, the ground being all covered with snow ; but as to men, 
t he does not usually attempt them unless they first attack him. 
a On the contrary, if you meet him in the woods, if you don’t 
meddle with him he won’t meddle with you. But then you 
must take care to be very civil to him, and give him the road ; 

( for he is a very nice gentleman, he won’t go a step out of 
his way fora prince. Nay, if you are really afraid, your 
, best way is to look another way, and keep going on ; for 
’ sometimes if you stop and stand still, and look steadily at 
him, he takes it for an affront. But if you throw or toss 
a anything at him, and it hits him, though it were but a bit 
* of a stick as big as your finger, he takes it for an affront, 

" and sets all his other business aside to pursue his revenge ; 

| for he will have satisfaction in point of honor. That is 
his first quality. The next is, that if he be once affronted, 
he will never leave you night or day till he has his revenge, 
but follows at a good round rate till he overtakes you. 

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we 
came up to him he was helping him off from his horse — 
for the man was both hurt and frighted, and indeed the 
last more than the first — when, on the sudden, we spied 
the bear come out of the wood. And a vast monstrous 
one it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were 
all a little surprised, when we saw him ; but when Friday 
saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow’s 
countenance. “ Oh ! oh ! oh ! ” says Friday, three times, 
pointing to him ; “ oh, master ! you give me te leave ; me 
shakee te hand with him ; me make you good laugh.” 

I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased. “You 
fool you,” says I, “ he will eat you up ! ” “ Eatee me up ! 

eatee me up! ” says Friday, twice over again; “me eatee 


The Life and Adventures of 


3S 2 

him up; me make you good laugh. You all stay here; 
me show you good laugh.” So down he sits, and gets his 
boots off in a moment, and put on a pair of pumps (as we 
call the flat shoes they wear, and which he had in his 
pocket), gives my other servant his horse, and with his 
gun away he flew swift like the wind. 

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle 
with nobody, till Friday, coming pretty near, calls to him, 
as if the bear could understand him. “ Hark ye ! hark 
ye!” says Friday; “me speakee wit you.” We followed 
at a distance ; for now, being come down on the Gascony 
side of the mountains, we were entered a vast great forest, 
where the country was plain and pretty open, though 
many trees in it scattered here and there. 

Friday, who had as we say, the heels of the bear, came 
up with him quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws 
at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no 
more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall. But 
it answered Friday’s end ; for the rogue was so void of fear j 
that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and 
show us some laugh, as he called it. As soon as the bear | 
felt the stone and saw him, he turns about and comes after 
him, taking devilish long strides, and shuffling along at a ^ 
strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a middling 
gallop. Away runs Friday, and takes his course as if he 
run toward us for help. So we all resolved to fire at once 
upon the bear, and deliver my man ; though I was angry 
at him heartily for bringing the bear back upon us when he 
was going about his own business another way. And 
especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon 
us and then run away; and I called out: “You dog,” said v 
I, “ is this your making us laugh ? Come away, and take I 
your horse, that we may shoot the creature.” He hears me, J 
and cries out, “No shoot! no shoot! Standstill; you get 


Robinson Crusoe 


353 


much laugh.” And as the nimble creature run two foot 
for the beast’s one, he turned on a sudden on one side of 
us, and seeing a great oak tree fit for his purpose, he 
beckoned to us to follow ; and doubling his pace, he gets 
nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground 
at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree. 

The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a 
distance. The first thing he did he stopped at the gun, 
smelt to it, but let it lie ; and up he scrambles into the tree, 
climbing like a cat, though so monstrously heavy. I was 
amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could 
not for my life see anything to laugh at yet, till seeing the 
bear get up the tree, we all rode nearer to him. 

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to 
the small end of a large limb of the tree, and the bear got 
about half-way to him. As soon as the bear got out to 
that part where the limb of the tree was weaker, “ Ha,” says 
he to us, “ now you see me teachee the bear dance.” So he 
falls a jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear 
began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind 
him to see how he should get back ; then, indeed, we did 
laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with him by a 
great deal. When he sees him stand still, he calls out to him 
again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, 
“What! you no come farther? Pray you come farther.” 
So he left jumping and shaking the tree ; and the bear, just 
as if he had understood what he said, did come a little 
farther ; then he fell a jumping again, and the bear stopped 
again. 

We thought -now was a good time to knock him on the 
head, and I called to Friday to stand still and we would 
shoot the bear. But he cried out earnestly, “ O pray ! O 
pray! no shoot; me shoot by and then.” He would have 
said by-and-by. However, to shorten the story, Friday 


354 


The Life and Adventures of 


danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we 
had laughing enough indeed, but still could not imagine 
what the fellow would do : for first we thought he de- 
pended upon shaking the bear off ; and we found the bear 
was too cunning for that too, for he would not go out far 
enough to be thrown down, but clings fast with his great 
broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what 
would be the end of it, and where the jest would be at last. 

But Friday put us out of doubt quickly; for seeing the ~ 
bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be 
persuaded to come any farther, “Well, well,” says Friday, 

“ you no come farther, me go, me go ; you no come to me, 
me go come to you.” And upon this he goes out to the 
smallest end of the bough, where it would bend with his 
weight, and gently lets himself down by it, sliding down 
the bough, till he came near enough to jump down on his 
feet, and away he run to his gun, takes it up, and stands 
still. 

“Well,” said I to him, “Friday, what will you do now? 
Why don’t you shoot him?” “No shoot,” says Friday, 

‘ no yet ; me shoot now, me no kill ; me stay, give you 
one more laugh.” And indeed so he did, as you will see 
presently : for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he 
comes back from the bough where he stood ; but did it 
mighty leisurely, looking behind him every step, and com- 
ing backward till he got into the body of the tree. Then 
with the same hinder end foremost, he come down the 
tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a 
time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he 
could set his hind feet upon the ground, Friday stepped 
up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his 
ear, and shot him dead as a stone. 

Then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh, 
and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, he falls a 


Robinson Crusoe 


355 


laughing himself very loud. “ So we kill bear in my coun- 
try,” says Friday. “So you kill them!” says I. “Why, 
you have no guns.” “ No,” says he; “no gun, but shoot, 
great much long arrow.” 

This was indeed a good diversion to us ; but we were still 
in a wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what 
to do we hardly knew. The howling of wolves run much 
in my head ; and indeed, except the noise I once heard on 
the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, 
I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror. 

These things and the approach of night called us off, or 
else, as Friday would have had us, we should certainly 
have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which 
was worth saving; but we had three leagues to go, and 
our guide hastened us, so we left him, and went forward on 
our journey. 

The ground was still covered with snow, though not so 
deep and dangerous as on the mountains ; and the raven- 
ous creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down to 
the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger to seek for 
food ; and had done a great deal of mischief in the vil- 
lages, where they surprised the country people, killed a 
great many of their sheep and horses, and some people 
too. 

We had one dangerous place to pass, which our guide 
told us, if there were any more wolves in the country, we 
should find them there ; and this was in a small plain sur- 
rounded with woods on every side, and a long narrow 
defile or lane, which we were to pass to get through the 
wood, and then we should come to the village where we 
were to lodge. 

It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered 
the first wood, and a little after sunset when we came into 
the plain. We met with nothing in the first wood except 


356 The Life and Adventures of 

that in a little plain within the wood, which was not above 
two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, 
full speed one after another, as if they had been in chase 
of some prey, and had it in view. They took no notice of 
us, and were gone, and out of our sight in a few moments. 

Upon this our guide, who, by the way, was a wretched, 
faint-hearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for he 
believed there were more wolves a coming. 

We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us ; but we 
saw no more wolves till we came through that wood, which 
was near half a league, and entered the plain. As soon as 
we came into the plain we had occasion enough to look about 
us. The first object we met with was a dead horse — that 
is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed — and 
at least a dozen of them at work, we could not say eating 
of him, but picking of his bones rather, for they had eaten 
up all the flesh before. 

We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast ; neither 
did they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly 
at them, but I would not suffer him by any means ; for I 
found we were like to have more business upon our hands 
than we were aware of. We were not gone half over the 
plain but we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood 
on our left in a frightful manner ; and presently after, we 
saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in 
a body, and most of them in a line as regularly as an army 
drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in what 
manner to receive them ; but found to draw ourselves in a 
close line was the only way ; so we formed in a moment. 
But that we might not have too much interval, I ordered 
that only every other man should fire, and that the others 
who had not fired should stand ready to give them a second 
volley immediately if they continued to advance upon us ; 
and that then those who had fired at first should not pre- 


Robinson Crusoe 


357 


tend to load their fusees again, but stand ready with every 
one a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a pair 
of pistols each man ; so we were by this method able to 
fire six volleys, half of us at a time. However, at present 
we had no necessity ; for upon firing the first volley the 
enemy made full stop, being terrified as well with the noise 
as with the fire. Four of them being shot into the head 
dropped, several others were wounded, and went bleeding 
off, as we could see by the snow. I found they stopped, 
but did not immediately retreat ; whereupon remembering 
that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified 
at the voice of a man, I caused all our company to halloo 
as loud as we could ; and I found the notion not altogether 
mistaken, for upon our shout they began to retire and turn 
about. Then I ordered a second volley to be fired in their 
rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to 
the woods. 

This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again, and 
that we might lose no time, we kept going ; but we had 
but little more than loaded our fusees, and put ourselves 
into a readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the 
same wood on our left, only that it was farther onward, the 
same way we were to go. 

The night was coming on, and the light began to be 
dusky, which made it worse on our side; but the noise 
increasing, we could easily perceive that it was the howling 
and yelling of those hellish creatures ; and on a sudden 
we perceived two or three troops of wolves, one on our 
left, one behind us, and one on our front ; so that we 
seemed to be surrounded with them. However, as they 
did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward as fast as we 
could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough 
was only a good large trot ; and in this manner we came 
in view of the entrance of a wood through which we were 


358 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

to pass at the farther side of the plain ; but we were greatly 
surprised when, coming nearer the lane or pass, we saw 
a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance. 

On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard 
the noise of a gun ; and looking that way, out rushed a 
horse with a saddle and bridle on him, flying like the wind, 
and sixteen or seventeen wolves after him, full speed; 
indeed, the horse had the heels of them, but as we sup- 
posed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubted 
not but they would get up with him at last and no question 
but they did. 

But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to 
the entrance where the horse came out, we found the 
carcass of another horse, and of two men devoured, by the 
ravenous creatures ; and one of the men was no doubt 
the same who we heard fired the gun, for there lay a gun 
just by him fired off ; but as to the man, his head and the 
upper part of his body was eaten up. 

This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course 
to take ; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they 
gathered about us presently in hopes of prey ; and I 
verily believe there were three hundred of them. It hap 
pened very much to our advantage that at the entrance 
into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay some 
large timber trees, which had been cut down the summer 
before, and I suppose lay there for carriage. I drew my 
little troop in among those trees, and placing ourselves in 
a line behind one long tree, I advised them all to light, 
and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork to 
stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in 
the centre. 

We did so, and it was well we did ; for never was a more 
furious charge than the creatures made upon us in the 
place. They came on us with a growling kind of a noise, 






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The Life and Adventures of 


36° 

and mounted the piece of timber, which, as I said, was our 
breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey ; 
and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned 
by their seeing our horses behind us, which was the prey 
they aimed at. I ordered our men to fire as before, every 
other man ; and they took their aim so sure, that indeed 
they killed several of the wolves at the first volley ; but 
there was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they 
came on like devils, those behind pushing on those before. 

When we had fired our second volley of our fusees, we 
thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have 
gone off ; but it was but a moment, for others came forward 
again : so we fired two volleys of our pistols, and I believe 
in these four firings we had killed seventeen or eighteen of 
them, and lamed twice as many ; yet they came on again. 

I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily ; so I called 
my servant — not my man Friday, for he was better em- 
ployed ; for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he had 
charged my fusee and his own while we were engaged ; 
but, as I said, I called my other man, and giving him a 
horn of powder, I bade him lay a train all along the piece 
of timber, and let it be a large train. He did so, and had 
but just time to get away when the wolves came up to 
it, and some were got up upon it ; when I snapping an 
uncharged pistol, close to the powder, set it on fire. Those 
that were upon the timber were scorched with it, and six 
or seven of them fell, or rather jumped in among us, with 
the force and fright of the fire. We despatched these in 
an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the light, 
which the night, for it was now very near dark, made more 
terrible, that they drew back a little. 

Upon which I ordered our last pistol to be fired off in 
one volley, and after that we gave a shout. Upon this 
the wolves turned tail, and we sallied immediately upon 


Robinson Crusoe 


361 

near twenty lame ones, who we found struggling on the 
ground, and fell a cutting them with our swords ; which 
answered our expectation, for the crying and howling they 
made was better understood by their fellows, so that they 
all fled and left us. 

We had, first and last, killed about three score of them ; 
and had it been daylight, we had killed many more. The 
field of battle being thus cleared, we made forward again ; 
for we had still near a league to go. We heard the 
ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods, as we went, 
several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of 
them ; but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not cer- 
tain : so in about an hour more we came to the town where 
we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible fright, and 
all in arms ; for it seems, that, the night before, the wolves 
and some bears had broken into the village in the night, 
and put them in a terrible fright, and they were obliged 
to keep guard night and day, but especially in the night, 
to preserve their cattle and indeed their people. 

The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs 
swelled with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could 
go no farther ; so we were obliged to take a new guide there, 
and go to Toulouse, where we found a warm climate, a 
fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves or any- 
thing like them. But when we told our story at Toulouse, 
they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in the 
great forest at the foot of the mountains, especially when 
the snow lay on the ground. But they inquired much 
what kind of a guide we had gotten that would venture 
to bring us that way in such a severe season ; and told us 
it was very much we were not all devoured. When we 
told them how we placed ourselves and the horses in the 
middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us it was fifty 
to one but we had all been destroyed ; for it was the sight 


362 


The Life and Adventures of 


of the horses which made the wolves so furious, seeing 
their prey ; and that at other times they are really afraid 
of a gun ; but the being excessive hungry, and raging on that 
account, the eagerness to come at the horses had made them 
senseless of danger ; and that if we had not by the con- J 
tinued fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of 
powder, mastered them, it had been great odds but that we 
had been torn to pieces ; whereas had we been content to 
have sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they 
would not have taken the horses for so much their own, 
when men were on their backs, as otherwise : and withal 
they told, that at last, if we had stood all together, and left 
our horses, they would have been so eager to have devoured 
them, that we might have come off safe, especially having 
our firearms in our hands, and being so many in number. 

For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my 
life ; for seeing above three hundred devils come roaring 
and open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to 
shelter us or retreat to, I gave myself over for lost ; and 
as it was, I believe I shall never care to cross those moun- 
tains again. I think I would much rather go a thousand 
leagues by sea, though I were sure to meet with a storm 
once a week. 

I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage i 
through France, nothing but what other travellers have 
given an account of with much more advantage than I can. 

I travelled from Toulouse to Paris, and without any con- 
siderable stay, came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, 
the 14th of January, after having had a severe cold season 
to travel in. 

I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in 
a little time all my new discovered estate safe about me, 
the bills of exchange which I brought with me having 
been very currently paid. 


Robinson Crusoe 


363 


My principal guide and privy counsellor was my good 
j ncient widow, who, in gratitude for the money I had sent 
!ier, thought no pains too much or care too great to employ 
j or me ; and I trusted her so entirely with everything that 
l was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects ; and 
ndeed I was very happy from my beginning, and now to 
he end, in the unspotted integrity of this good gentle- 
voman. 

And now I began to think of leaving my effects with 
his woman, and setting out for Lisbon, and so to the 
Brazils. But now another scruple came in my way, and 
:hat was religion ; for as I had entertained some doubts 
ibout the Roman religion, even while I was abroad, espe- 
cially in my state of solitude, so I knew there was no going 
to the Brazils for me, much less going to settle there, unless 
I resolved to embrace the Roman Catholic religion without 
any reserve ; unless on the other hand, I resolved to be a 
sacrifice to my principles, be a martyr for religion, and die 
in the Inquisition. So I resolved to stay at home, and if I 
could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation. 

To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon ; who 
in return gave me notice that he could easily dispose of it 
'there, but that if I thought fit to give him leave to offer it 
in my name to the two merchants, the survivors of my 
trustees, who lived in the Brazils, who must fully under- 
stand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot, and 
| who I knew were very rich, so that he believed they would 
be fond of buying it, he did not doubt but I should make 
4000 or 5000 pieces of eight the more of it. 

Accordingly I agreed, gave him order to offer it to them, 
and he did so ; and in about eight months more, the ship 
being then returned, he sent me an account that they had 
accepted the offer, and had remitted 33,000 pieces of eight 
to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon to pay for it. 


3 6 4 


The Life and Adventures of 


In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form 
which they sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man 
who sent me bills of exchange for 32,800 pieces of eight to 
me for the estate ; reserving the payment of 100 moidores 
a year to him, the old man, during his life, and 50 moidores 
afterwards to his son for his life, which I had promised them, 
which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. 
And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and 
adventure, a life of Providence’s checker-work, and of a 
variety which the world will seldom be able to show the like 
of. Beginning foolishly, but closing much more happily 
than any part of it ever gave me leave so much as to hope 
for. 

Any one would think that in this state of complicated 
good fortune I was past running any more hazards ; and 
so indeed I had been, if other circumstances had concurred ; 
but I was inured to a wandering life, had no family, not 
many relations, nor, however rich, had I contracted much 
acquaintance; and though I had sold my estate in the 
Brazils, yet I could not keep the country out of my head, 
and had a great mind to be upon the wing again ; especially 
I could not resist the strong inclination I had to see my 
island, and to know if the poor Spaniards were in being 
there, and how the rogues I had left there had used 
them. 

My true friend the widow earnestly dissuaded me from 
it, and so far prevailed with me that for almost seven years 
she prevented my running abroad ; during which time I 
took my two nephews, the children of one of my brothers, 
into my care. The eldest having something of his own, I 
bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some 
addition to his estate after my decease. The other I put 
out to a captain of a ship ; and after five years, finding 
him a sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him 


advi 


dis; 


Robinson Crusoe 


365 

nto a good ship, and sent him to sea. And this young 
fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to farther 
adventures myself. 

In the meantime, I in part settled myself here ; for, first 
of all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or 
dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one 
daughter. But my wife dying, and my nephew coming 
home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my incli- 
nation to go abroad and his importunity prevailed, and en- 
gaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the 
East Indies. This was in the year 1694. 

In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw 
my successors the Spaniards, had the whole story of their 
lives, and of the villains I left there ; how at first they 
insulted the poor Spaniards ; how they afterwards agreed, 
disagreed, united, separated; and how at last the Span- 
iards were obliged to use violence with them ; how they 
were subjected to the Spaniards; how honestly the Span- 
iards used them : a history, if it were entered into, as 
full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own part, 
particularly also as to their battles with the Caribbeans, 
who landed several times upon the island ; and as to the 
improvement they made upon the island itself ; and how 
five of them made an attempt upon the mainland, and 
brought away eleven men and five women prisoners, by 
which, at my coming, I found about twenty young children 
on the island. 

Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of 
all necessary things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, 
clothes, tools, and two workmen, which I brought from 
England with me ; namely a carpenter and a smith. 

Besides this, I shared the island into parts with them, 
reserved to myself the property of the whole, but gave them 
such parts respectively as they agreed on; and having 


366 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 

settled all things with them, and engaged them not to i 
leave the place, I left them there. 

From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I 
sent a bark, which I bought there, with more people to 
the island ; and in it, besides other supplies, I sent seven 
women, being such as I found proper for service, or for 
wives to such as would take them. As to the Englishmen, 

I promised them to send them some women from England, , 
with a good cargo of necessaries, if they would apply 
themselves to planting ; which I afterwards performed. 
And the fellows proved very honest and diligent after they 
were mastered, and had their properties set apart for them, j 
I sent them also from the Brazils five cows, . . . some 
sheep, and some hogs ; which, when I came again, were 
considerably increased. 

But all these things, with an account how three hundred 
Caribbees came and invaded them, and ruined their planta- 
tions, and how they fought with that whole number twice, 
and were at first defeated and three of them killed ; but at 
last a storm destroying their enemies’ canoes, they fam- 
ished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and 
recovered the possession of their plantation, and still lived 
upon the island. 

All these things, with some very surprising incidents in 
some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I 
may perhaps give a farther account of hereafter. 


This reprint of “ Robinson Crusoe” follows carefully the text of the 
first edition published in 1719, and the original title page and frontis- 
piece are given in facsimile. Only in a few unimportant instances 
has any variation been made from that edition. Obvious misprints and 
wrong spellings of proper names have been corrected, and a few gross 
or profane expressions have been eliminated. The capitalization and 
punctuation have been modernized, but no further liberty has been taken 
with the text, which stands practically in the strong, picturesque language 
of the original. 

Daniel Defoe, the son of a London tradesman who was a Noncon- 
formist, was born in 1661, and died in 1731. At school he studied 
well, was a great reader and keen observer, and had a powerful memory. 
He was intended for the ministry. The continued persecution of the 
Nonconformists, which had driven some of them out of England into 
Holland and thence to America, forty years before his birth, naturally 
roused his indignation, and he became known as a writer of satirical 
pamphlets attacking the tyranny which was directed against the liberty 
and conscience of the people. One of his most famous pamphlets was 
“The True Born Englishman,” a defence of King William III., who 
was a greater friend to religious liberty than his predecessor James II. 
Defoe was punished more than once for his political essays and satirical 
pamphlets, of which he wrote an enormous number, over four hundred 
titles being known to exist. One of his books was ordered to be burned 
by the common hangman, and Defoe was arrested and placed in the 
pillory. 

At this time he was described as a “ middle sized, spare man, about 
forty years old, with brown complexion, and dark brown colored hair. 
He wore a wig, had a hooked nose, sharp gray eyes, and a large mole 
near his mouth.” The populace on the occasion of his being pilloried, 
regarding him as the champion of religious liberty, attended him in a 
kind of triumphal procession from the prison to the place where the 
pillory stood. It was in the month of July, and the pillory was hung 
with garlands by the people, who offered him refreshments during the 

367 


3 68 


Note to Robinson Crusoe 


time he stood there, instead of pelting him with filth, hooting, jeer- 
ing and abusing him as was usually done. He was kept in prison for 
a year, but he continued to write while there. 

The story of “ Robinson Crusoe,” as told in this volume, was succeeded | 
by a second part entitled “The Farther Adventures of Robinson 
Crusoe,” but that has never been so popular as the first, which had a 
surprising sale immediately on its publication ; it was scarcely possible 
to print it fast enough to keep up with the demand. The book has 
been translated and printed in almost every living language, and also 
into Latin and Greek, and it has been published in all possible ways and 
at all possible prices. It has been boiled down into a chap-book and 
sold for a farthing, and has been printed in magnificent editions de luxe 
upon which all the art of the printer, illustrator, and bookbinder has been | 
lavished. 

It has been said that the germ of the idea of the book is to be found 
in the adventures of one Alexander Selkirk, who was cast away on a i 
desert island, but there is no proof that Defoe availed himself of this ' j 
man’s story, which, except for the central incident, does not resemble | 
the story of “ Robinson Crusoe.” Of all the works that Defoe wrote, 
the two books which have lived until now, “Robinson Crusoe” and 
“ The History of the Plague,” prove what an absolute master of the I 
art of story telling he was ; and it must be remembered that where 
the language *is not always in accordance with modern rules, it is the ' 
language spoken in the period at which Crusoe is supposed to have lived, f 
and Jhat the modes of expression are exactly those that a man like I 
Robinson Crusoe would have used at that time. 

C. W. 


73 8 


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